
Eistet&C 0 



THE 



LIFE, LABOURS, AND WRITINGS 



0 M S A R MA LAN, 

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CHURCH OF GENEVA, DOCTOR OF 
DIVINITY, AND PASTOR OF "L'EGLISE DU TEMOIGNAGE." 



ONE OF HIS SONS. 



€ 




(Fac-siinile of the habitual Seal of Malan, drawn and engraved by himself 
in the beginning of the Revival.) 



LONDON: 
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
1869. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

Inteoduction, ..... 1 

BOOK I. 

I. Childhood and Early Years, .... 9 

II. New Convictions and Struggles, . . . .30 

III. Malan's Chapel, and Pastoral Work up to 1830, . . 113 

IV. General Survey of the Years 1820-1830, . . .171 



BOOK II. 
Public Laboues fkom 1830. 
I. His Dogmatism, and the Distinctive Character of his Teaching, 214 
II. Evangelisation in Geneva, and other Countries, . . 254 

III. Public Labours in Geneva from the Year 1830, . . 310 



ii 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK III. 

Malan's Pkivate and Domestic Life — His Closing Relations to the 
Chuech— The Evening of his Life, and his death. 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. My Father in the Bosom of his Family, . . 373 

II. Evening and Close of his Life, .... 430 



INTRODUCTION. 



Immediately after my father's death, I received numerous 
requests to undertake the task of writing his biography. 
It appeared to me at the time that such a task might 
easily have been entrusted to abler hands, and a stricter 
impartiality at the same time have been secured. 

Though four years have elapsed since that event, still, 
with the exception of a few articles in French and English 
newspapers, and a short notice by the Eev. John Augustine 
Bost,* no record has been furnished of my father's career. 
Under these circumstances, I have yielded to the appeals 
of those friends who seemed to think that, in some respects, 
I possessed special qualifications for recording his history. 

This they argued from their knowledge of the fact that 
I was most intimately associated with my father from the 
very nature of my own studies, and enjoyed the privilege 

* Published in 1865. I eagerly seize this occasion of thanking my old 
friend, in my name, and in the name of all my family, not only for the 
pages referred to above, so full of friendly feeling, but also for all his kind- 
ness to my father in the last years of his life. Amongst the obituary articles 
in periodicals, the pages in the Record (8th June 1864), written by a friend 
of my father of long standing, are especially worthy of note. 

A 



2 



INTRODUCTION. 



of living near him, especially towards the close of his life, 
to a greater extent than any of my brothers. 

On the other hand, thankfully admitting that I owe 
what religious light I may be at present enjoying to his 
teaching instrumentally, and more especially to his 
example, I must at the same time add that I was never 
a member of the community which acknowledged him as 
pastor, and that, from a very early period, I gave to the 
faith we shared in common, a dogmatic expression different 
from his. 

This, however, proved no hindrance to the intimacy 
which I enjoyed with him, or to the confidence with which 
he favoured me, while in his Irving piety and fervent faith 
I ever sought and found the fire which warmed my soul. 

Though the struggle which reflected such imperishable 
renown on his earlier days happened at a period beyond 
my recollection, I can distinctly recall the events which 
immediately followed. But my closest remembrances 
gather round his declining years, the long-protracted 
evening of his honourable life. Reduced by his isolation 
to a chilling obscurity, he persevered as undauntedly as 
ever in the activity which had always characterised him, 
and secured by Ms testimony, faithful to the last, and by 
the unvarying harmony between his principles and his 
life, a position of peculiar prominence in the religious 
world, in the midst of which he was placed. 

It will be dfficult — I feel it strongly — to reach and 
retain that elevation of spirit from which alone a faith like 
his — so simple, natural, candid, and fervent — can be fairly 
appreciated. Still, I will endeavour to distinguish, with 
such clearness as I may be able to employ, between that 



INTRODUCTION. 



3 



faith or living principle communicated to his will by divine 
agency and the semi-human or Christian expression which 
he gave to it in dogma. To me the living faith of his heart 
appeared not only as a special grace beautifying his life, 
but as a heaven-lit beacon at the entrance of mine, destined, 
I am well assured, to guide me to the end of my days. 
Its dogmatical expression, in common with any other of 
his peculiar characteristics, I shall regard in the following 
pages, as submitted to that particular kind of appreciation 
which may be looked for in a son ; nor shall I, I trust, 
transgress in any subsequent criticism the limits which 
filial reverence would naturally impose. 

A still greater difficulty, however, remains to be noticed. 
For one, educated as I was, under his immediate influence, 
and trained in the midst of the circumstances which iso- 
lated his family and himself, it will, I feel, be no easy 
task to maintain a strictly unbiassed judgment in review- 
ing his career. 

Not that I have any expectation of satisfying all the 
different sections of our religious world ; my only aim in 
this respect will be to avoid as far as possible all injury 
to just susceptibilities. To this end I shall endeavour, 
in imitation of him whose life I am recording, to maintain 
a spirit of brotherly love towards men I cannot wish to 
please, and to cherish a sincere respect for those whose 
opinions I cannot adopt. If I fail at times to suppress 
the personal element, if individual feelings prove too strong, 
my readers will have to judge from the facts submitted to 
them whether they justify the language employed. 

Though born in the midst of the First Eevival, I never 
witnessed under my father's roof the prejudice and 



4 



INTRODUCTION. 



narrowness of view with which the friends of that religions 
movement are so frequently credited. After an early visit 
to foreign countries, I commenced my studies in Germany, 
continued them at Lausanne under Vinet, and concluded 
them in the Theological School of the Evangelical Society 
of Geneva, at the time when E. Scheren was on the list 
of its professors. At a later period, I received many 
valued marks of esteem from our National Church. Dis- 
sociated at present from any particular communion, my 
aim is to occupy a position amongst those believers who 
desire not so much to serve any particular section of the 
Church as to serve God Himself in any organised form 
with which His Providence may for a time connect 
them. 

Independent as is this position, which I felt it my duty 
to describe, I cannot but realise the difficulty of avoiding, 
on the one hand, indications of the partiality which no son 
could help experiencing for such a father, and, on the other, 
the undue influence of those emotions which will assert 
themselves whenever I recall his struggles and sufferings. 

Had Geneva continued to be what it was when these 
sufferings were undergone, my feelings in reference to 
them would have sufficed to deter me from my present 
undertaking. But the religious animus of 1817 is now 
extinct, and while the incidents of that period deserve to be 
recorded, the fact that the dominion of the clergy, in some 
of its severer manifestations, has succumbed to the logic 
of progress will never fail to be regarded with satisfaction. 

To sceptics on all " religious questions," it will suffice to 
say that, without dwelling on the interest which will ever 
attach to Malan's life in the eyes of those who shared the 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



sentiments lie so boldly asserted, his history -will not "be 
without its worth, even in the judgment of the indifferent, 
as being the career of a man persecuted and set aside for 
daring to remind the Church and nation of those traditions 
which alone have been the source of their past glory. 

As a man of faith he realised in his own experience the 
promise uttered once on our earth by Him for Whose cause 
he suffered. A true representative of a sincere profession, 
and of the rights of individual convictions, he lived long 
enough to see the ecclesiastical body which had discarded 
him stripped of the privileges they had abused, — long 
enough also, to hail, along with all the friends of Christian 
liberty and an unshackled gospel, a return of new life to 
the ancient Church of his fathers, always dear to him, — 
long enough, to bear public testimony before strangers that 
all this had come to pass. 

In undertaking to write his life, I believe that I am not 
only following my strongest inclination as a son, and a 
fellow-believer, but that I am even rendering a service to 
my country. Were I to seek to revive buried animosities, 
I know well that among the multitudes who would condemn 
me, he himself would be foremost. The death of strife 
is sufficiently lingering without unprincipled efforts to 
protract its agony. At the same time, in any historical 
retrospect, sufficient must be recalled to indicate the teach- 
ing of Him Whose sole glory all events, past, present, or 
future, must combine to promote. 

But, indeed, it may be asked, what could there be in the 
history of the period to which we shall have to refer, which 
could at all rekindle strife in modern times ? The days in 
which we live are characterised by a thoughtful — sometimes 



c 



INTRODUCTION. 



even by a painful and anxious expectation: hence they 
call for peace and reunion. The dangers that surround us 
are no longer those arising from the disturbance of religious 
parties; they spring rather from the silence of faith and 
the suppression of conviction. If only for this reason, it 
would be our duty to trace out the history of one who 
largely contributed to the inaugurating of the liberties in 
which we glory ; for none of us can turn them to a good 
account who has not studied their origin. 

The subject of this memoir was one of those whose 
motives will never be universally understood. Such per- 
sons as would content themselves with discovering, in the 
religious life of heroes like Augustin, Whitfield, or Havelock, 
a mere innate energy combined with an honesty of pur- 
pose and consistency deserving all esteem, will find no- 
thing to attract them in these pages. They might notice 
for a moment the active faith of the central figure, but 
their attention would soon be wearied, probably their 
sympathies and prejudices outraged. 

If I write not exclusively for men "full of the Holy 
Ghost and of faith," I would at least have those only for 
my readers, who, recognising that faith as the highest gift 
of heaven, desire ardently to partake of it. 

The sources from which I have derived my information 
are documents, either in type or manuscript, of the existence 
of many of which I had been profoundly ignorant. In our 
private intercourse, my father never touched on any fact 
which tended to throw discredit on any single individual. 
So scrupulous was he in this respect that it was only on 
the occasion of my preparing a translation of Baron de 
Goltz's work in 1862, that he consented to put into my 



INTRODUCTION. 



7 



hands certain printed matter necessary for verifying the 
quotations of the German work * 

To my reiterated request that he would undertake his 
own biography, he invariably replied, that as it had pleased 
God to make him a man of strife ( Jer. xv. 1 0,) he had been 
too much involved in personal debates to feel qualified for 
such a task. The few MS. notes of his, which I found 
after his death, contained only such proper names as had 
been already and frequently brought before the public. 

For the first period of his life, more especially for his strug- 
gle with the Venerable Assembly of Geneva, I found, after 
an attentive perusal of the original documents themselves, 
no safer authority than the book which I have just men- 
tioned. Some few works, not quoted in its pages, I shall 
refer to in the course of the narrative. To this may be 
added the following list of materials : — 

1. Numerous letters, from 1816-63: copies of his cor- 
respondence with different persons. 

2. Notes and memoranda in his own handwriting, of 
various events in his life. 

3. Numerous manuscripts; e.g., sermons, catechisms, 
from the first year of his ministry ; tracts ; essays on 
special points of divinity ; with more than a thousand un- 
published hymns. 

Of course I could not undertake to make a thorough 
examination of all these papers ; while the letters of a man 

* " Geneve religieuse, au xix me Siecle ; ou tableau des faits qui, depuis 
1815, ont accompagne dans cette ville, le de'veloppement de l'individualisme 
ecclesiastique du Eeveil, mis en regard de l'ancien systeme theocratique de 
l'eglise de Calvin, par le Baron H. de Goltz, chapelain de l'ambassade 
de Prusse a Rome, traduit de 1' Allemand, sous les yeux de l'auteur. Par 
C. Malan, fils. Geneve et Bale. Georg. 1862 ; i. vol de 600 pages." 



8 



INTRODUCTION. 



in the position he occupied could only be used with the 
strictest discretion. At the same time I may confidently 
state that the study of this accumulated evidence of activity 
produced a most vivid impression on my mind, and I notice 
it here to draw general attention to the fact that his medi- 
tation on, search into, and study and proclamation of the 
word, with the endless labours of his pen, closed only with 
his earnest and devoted life. 

It is my pleasing duty to express my acknowledgments 
to the Venerable Assembly of the Church of Geneva for 
the readiness with which they forwarded my investigations 
by giving me access to the minutes of their Sessions ; I 
may add too that, having submitted the following to my 
venerable mother, she confirmed the accuracy of the state- 
ments of facts they present. 

It is further my duty to acknowledge the readiness with 
which the company of the pastors of Geneva granted me, 
in the prosecution of my researches, free access to the diary 
of their sittings, and the courtesy with which their secre- 
tary, the Eev. Siordet, put himself at my disposal for that 
purpose. 

To such of my father's friends as may peruse the follow- 
ing chapters, I would address one special request : that 
should they note any inaccuracy, or recall, as they read, 
any facts of interest or importance which have escaped 
my notice, they would kindly communicate with me on 
the subject. 

C. MALAiST. 

Geneva, 1868. 



CJSAR M A L A N, D.D.: 

HIS LIFE AND WEITINGS. 



BOOK L 

1787-1830. 



CHAPTEE I. 

CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 

Deep, strong, and still, — an earnest stream 

Flows darkly through a tangled glen, 

By rocks and caves that give again 
The awe of its mysterious dream. 

The religious awakening in the Eeformed Churches of 
France, of which the generation now passing away has 
been the witness, whether regarded as one of the many 
phases of the great social revolution which has character- 
ised our age, or whether hailed as the dawn of a new era 
in the free manifestation of individual faith, must still 
remain, on either assumption, an accredited historical fact, 
whose significance and value none may question. Nor 
must it be forgotten, at the same time, that Geneva was 
the cradle of its birth, and that the subject of these memoirs 
has already, and justly, been called its hero. 



10 



LIFE OF CjESAR MALAN. 



He it was who dealt those decisive blows to that 
clerical dominion which, in the Churches to which we 
refer, had become so widespread at the commencement of 
the present century, eclipsing and absorbing the individual 
faith to which these very Churches owed, not merely their 
historical renown, but their very existence. He it was 
who, comprehending little at the outset of the vastness of 
the movement he was inaugurating, and by the simple 
force of inward principle, urging him to bow to what he 
deemed the most sacred obligation, was employed by 
God to destroy the false prestige of the clergy to whose 
body he himself belonged, by quitting a Church to whose 
ministry he had but recently been ordained ; — the Church 
of his native land — the Church in the van of the French 
reformed denomination — the Church, moreover, be it remem- 
bered, whose glorious traditions never ceased to be upper- 
most in his heart. For the second time, after an interval of 
300 years, the tidings spread that a preacher had sprung up 
in Geneva, against whom the clergy of that city had raised 
the same cry which had been elicited from the Eomish 
priests of 1532, at the proclamation made by G. Farel (the 
friend and precursor of Calvin) of salvation by grace. 

In short, in that Protestant Eome, where the profession 
of faith had been so brilliant and so positive, there had 
sprung up in its place by slow degrees a system in 
itself vague and indefinite, and in declared hostility to 
every tendency in the direction of frank and outspoken 
opinions * Hence, as a natural result, the more evident 

* Merle D'Aubigtie. — History of the Reformation in Europe, in the 
time of Calvin, iii. 274 (in French) ; see also, for a parallel of the revival 
of the 16th and of the 19th century in Geneva, the Proces clu Methodisme, 
published by Malan in 1835. 



STATE OF RELIGIOUS OPINION. 



11 



the decay of spiritual life in the majority of professed 
believers, the greater was the importance attached by the 
public judgment, as well to that external moral propriety, 
the guarantee for the maintenance of which rested gene- 
rally with the influence of an esteemed and deserving 
clergy, as to the institutions and observances of public 
worship, with the direction of which that clergy had 
hitherto been wholly and exclusively entrusted. Things 
had reached such a condition that, if we except a few 
isolated independent cases, not only was the customary 
reading of the Scriptures neglected, not only was scriptural 
teaching superseded by the fiat that "nothing in the 
Bible was to be believed but what might be known apart 
from it ; " but even the Eedeemer Himself was ignored in 
those attributes and truths respecting Him most essential 
to spiritual life. Meanwhile the religious sentiment of 
the people would have been stifled, and the public sense of 
propriety violated, had there been any falling off in the 
traditional respect which the "Venerable Compagnie des 
Pasteurs" had hitherto enjoyed, or any questioning for 
a moment the rights and prerogatives with which the 
memory of old times and customs had invested them !* 

Undoubtedly it must be admitted that the Genevese 
Pastorate saw nothing in the revival of their rights which 
approached in character a distinct usurpation. Prom the 
period of the restoration of the republic in 1815 all 
respectable citizens had agreed in regarding the " Com- 

* " La Venerable Compagnie des Pasteurs" is the official title (such as 
the " convocation " in the Church of England) of the head body of the 
clergy of the Genevese Church. There is now the Consistoire (the Presby- 
tery), and the V. Comp. (the clerical body). This title is left untrans- 
lated. — Note by Translator. 



12 



LIFE OF CASSAB MALAN. 



pagnie " not only as men whose morality was so unim- 
peachable that even their enemies could not but respect 
them ; but, as representing a body which, for sixteen 
years of irreligious ascendency, at times violent and 
aggressive, had comprehended thoroughly the evils which 
had been let loose upon Geneva by the odious domination 
of a foreign rule ; while they had preserved, in the integrity 
of its old tradition, the worship of their forefathers as well 
as the religious observances and institutions of the past. 
Therefore, in the eyes of a Genevese of that epoch to assail 
the reverence with which the heads of the Church were 
surrounded, would have been to touch the sacred palla- 
dium of his country. 

And yet it was at such a period as this that a young 
minister appeared on the stage — hitherto the esteemed of 
his ecclesiastical superiors, the favourite of the people — 
now, however, prepared to start an opposition as undis- 
guised as it was unexpected. 

An opposition, however, by no means, as far as he was con- 
cerned, the fruit of preconsidered views or deliberate plans. 
His was no design to attack institutions which he revered; 
the cry he raised proceeded from no presumptuous innovator, 
from no unscrupulous demagogue. He assailed no one. 
At the commencement of his career, he reflected no censure 
on the religious customs and observances around him ; his 
only desire was to fulfil with a clear conscience the minis- 
try which had been committed to him, by preaching out 
of the abundance of his heart the faith received from his 
forefathers. His was no aim in any sense to play a par- 
ticular part ; he sought but to follow the leadings of duty, 
under a sense of obligation which he found it impossible 



HIS SOLITARY POSITION. 



13 



to ignore. His very faitli in God, asserting its mighty 
presence in his soul, compelled him, willingly or unwill- 
ingly, to trample nnder foot all the traditions of his child- 
hood, to silence every instinct of his gentle disposition, to 
look on calmly at the rending one by one of the dearest 
and most cherished ties, and that too while he felt that the 
course he was taking would prejudice the interests of his 
children, inasmuch as it involved the entire desertion, for 
his own part, at the moment of its attainment, of the goal 
which it had been his earliest dream to reach. 

Herein, indeed, lies the historical — let us rather say, the 
deeply tragical — aspect of the career we are about to 
chronicle. What man of feeling could fail to be touched 
by the spectacle of one, but a youth, unaided by reputation, 
influence, position, or rank, standing alone, with no external 
resources to sustain him, yet compelled, in all the weak- 
ness of his isolation, to aim direct blows at that which he 
had hitherto regarded with the deepest veneration — the 
authority of the fathers of his people, their moral and 
spiritual guides. A spectacle, too, the more striking when 
it is remembered that this young man belonged to a city 
conspicuous for the blind devotedness of her sons ; while 
he himself gave evidence, to the last hour of his life, that 
the love of his country was deeply engraven in his heart. 

Who, again, it may be urged, claiming kindred with our 
common humanity, more especially esteeming the eternal 
interests of the soul as transcending all else in importance, 
but would be struck at the sight of this same youth con- 
fronting authority in high places, and even a majority 
of his fellow-citizens, while he arrayed against him those 
very men whose esteem and affection he had hitherto 



14 



LIFE OF CJESAE MALAN. 



enjoyed. And that, too, with no faltering heart nor failing 
courage ; upheld alone by the presence of a simple, living 
faith, firm in his endurance as "seeing Him who is 
invisible;" and neither self-sufficiently nor yet hesitatingly, 
but with right onward step, advancing in a path beset by 
difficulties and, not unfrequently, by sufferings of every 
kind ! 

Henri Abraham Caesar Malan was born at Geneva on 
the 7th July 1787. He belonged to a family still nume- 
rous in the Piedmontese valleys of the Waldenses, where 
it at first took root in the commune of St Jean. A portion 
of it, migrating to France, settled at Merindol in Dauphiny, 
where traces of them still exist, and where they would 
seem, from various collateral proofs, to have attained rank 
in the state. What is most deserving of record, however, 
is the fact that many of his name, both in Piedmont and 
Prance, have been conspicuous in the rolls of heroic con- 
fessors, as sealing with their life their attachment to liberty, 
conscience, and the truth of the gospel. My father, as 
appears in several of his writings, looked upon it as a real title 
of nobility to belong to this small race of Waldensian confes - 
sors, and to have in his family the glorious blood of martyrs. 
Sprung thus from an ancient stock of primitive Christians, 
the Malans of Merindol scrupled not, after the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes, to sacrifice everything for their 
faith. While some sought in the wilds of Africa, at the 
Cape of Good Hope, the religious freedom which had been 
wrenched from them in their native land, one of them, 
Pierre Malan, the head of the family, and great-grandfather 
of the subject of this memoir, fled from Merindol in 1714, 
after the martyrdom of his sister, and reached Geneva in 



RETROSPECTIVE. 



15 



1 722 in a state of utter destitution. He entered as sergeant 
in the garrison of the city, and married a French exile, 
being in due course admitted among the inhabitants or 
"natifs."* 

The resolve to accord to " natifs " in Geneva the right of 
burghers, was due to the influence of the great Trench 
Eevolution. In the troublous times that inaugurated that 
memorable convulsion, my grandfather, though a natif, was 
the only one in his family enrolled among the " negatifs " 
or partizans of the government. My father used to relate, 
among the earliest memories of his childhood, the circum- 
stance of his being girded with a miniature sword in token 
of his new dignity as a burgess of Geneva. 

My grandfather, Jacques Imbert Malan, had succeeded, 
as College Master of the fourth class, his father-in-law, 
M. Prestreau, whose Greek and Latin Grammars had long 
served the pupils as manuals. He was univerally respected 
in the city to which he belonged. On one occasion, during 
the period of French rule, when it was open to him to 
succeed to considerable property, of which his grandfather 
had been deprived in the days of religious persecution, he 
declined to take the necessary steps, on discovering, after 
certain preliminary inquiries, that were he to claim pos- 
session, he would reduce several families to poverty. 
Moreover, when the Prefet, fully entering into his motives, 
pressed him nevertheless to consider the interests of his 
two sons, his reply was that he was fully convinced that 
the principles he meant to instil into them were such as, 

* The "natifs" in the old Republic of Geneva, before the French 
dominion, were not citizens or burghers ; they had no rights but such as 
might be granted them. They could not vote laws, taxes, &c. The English 
word "native " has an entirely different meaning. — Note by Translator. 



16 



LIFE OF C^FSAE MALAN. 



when they reached man's estate, would make them the first 
to approve of the course he was pursuing. Conspicuous 
thus for his benevolence, as well as for the liveliness and 
refinement of his mind, he was unable at first, with the 
traditions of the eighteenth century strong within him, to 
enter into the motives which influenced his son to renounce 
a career, the brilliant promise of which had already more 
than satisfied his fatherly ambition. It was not till later 
that he learned to attach more submission to the dictates 
of living faith and personal piety. During the earlier 
years of his younger son, his influence only tended to 
throw him back upon the council and teaching of his 
pious mother. Without, indeed, earning the reputation of 
a scorner, my grandfather had succumbed in no small 
measure to the influence of Voltaire, whose works, with 
those of Eousseau, and the Encyclopaedia of Diderot, occu- 
pied the place of honour on his library shelves. 

To him all spiritual enthusiasm was, to say the least, 
suspicious ; and while his thorough amiability of disposi- 
tion rendered him incapable of individual sarcasm, he 
greeted religious topics with the smile of superior intellect, 
and encountered every utterance of fervent piety with the 
passionless rigour of what he called his common sense. 
Yet, with all this, he not only loved his son, but respected 
him as well. At this very moment I have at my side a 
letter in which the old man summons all the resources of 
chastened satire and honest indignation to censure the 
unjustifiable attacks with which the head of the Genevese 
clergy had visited Caasar Malan. 

His wife, who died in 1848, had been brought up at 
Claveliere, an old estate purchased by her father, about 



FAMILY HISTORY. 



17 



twenty-one miles from Geneva, on the lower ridge of the 
Jorat, and still traceable near the farm which at present 
occupies its site. Her earlier years had been spent in one 
of the best schools in Neufchatel. 

The Prestreaus, like the Malans, were a family of re- 
fugees, and her father's history, full of romantic and 
dramatic incidents, never failed to appeal to my youthful 
imagination as I listened to my grandmother's account of 
it. They originally belonged to Mmes, where they moved 
in the upper circles of society. On their emigration from 
Prance, and consequent enrichment, they sought the most 
sequestered rural retirement, where they maintained the 
strictest observance of the traditional Huguenot worship. 
Thus it happened, that, not long after their settlement in 
Geneva, they furnished a pastor to the village of Van- 
doeuvres in the person of one of their connections, the 
Marquis de Pougereux, one of the " desert preachers " as 
they were called. He it was who baptized my grand- 
mother, who was his niece. He it was, too — so my father 
believed — who built the little house at Vandceuvres, 
which my grandfather subsequently purchased, and where 
my father passed the ten concluding years of his life. 

My grandmother, whose influence, as will afterwards 
appear, was the means of planting in her son's mind the 
earliest seeds of divine truth, was singularly attractive in 
appearance and manners. With angelic sweetness of dis- 
position, she combined a piety as simple as it was sincere. 
Deaf from a comparatively early period, her sight never 
good, she endeavoured, with admirable fortitude, to sustain 
herself under these infirmities by the assiduous discharge 
of family duties, and by daily select reading. To this she 

B 



18 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



owed a richly furnished mind, and a versatility of conver- 
sational power which gave a special charm to her society. 
My father was her favourite son, conducting himself to- 
wards her with the tenderest love, and the most unbounded 
attention and respect. At the close of her life he came 
and settled by her at Vandceuvres, never leaving her side 
except on the Sunday, to preach at Geneva, when he 
arranged that my mother or one of my sisters should sup- 
ply his place. 

After my grandfather's death, my grandmother, with her 
elder son, who lived abroad, continued to the last the ob- 
ject of my father's most anxious solicitude and tenderest 
affection. I have discovered in his desk many a letter 
which had passed between them, many a proof of their 
mutual attachment. Labled and locked up in his secret 
drawers, they gave evidence of belonging to his most 
treasured private relics. Amongst them were to be found 
a child's first efforts at writing : notes, all but illegible from 
age; scattered fragments revealing the clinging ardour of a 
mother's love. 

My father's childhood was spent with his parents in a 
house in the Eue Yerdaine, communicating by a passage 
with the library. Though never in absolute destitution, 
they were often in great straits, and especially at the time 
of which I am now writing ; their circumstances, indeed, 
being so straitened as to make it necessary for them to 
dispense even with a maid-servant. Yet theirs was a 
happy home notwithstanding, whose brightness my grand- 
mother loved to recall in the closing years of her life, as 
she related to me incident after incident in my father's 
early history ; as, for example, how one day, to save his 



INCIDENTS OF HIS BOYHOOD. 



19 



brother a scolding, he took his medicine ; how, another 
time, he was seen to give a beggar in the street the bread 
which had been furnished him for his breakfast on his 
going to school. Let me recall one other occurrence in her 
own words, as serving to illustrate the circumstances and 
influences among which he grew up to manhood. 

" It was during a severe winter, and in days when our 
circumstances were far from affluent, when your father was 
about seven years old, that I made him a present one day 
of a pair of warm woollen gloves. A morning or two 
afterwards, on his return from school, I noticed that he 
wasn't wearing them, and, by dint of questioning, elicited 
the explanation that he had given them to a poor boy with 
chilblained hands. ' You see, mamma,' he said, ' I can 
put my hands into my coat sleeves — his coat was not 
warm like mine.' " 

My grandmother commended her boy for what he had 
done, telling him, however, at the same time, that he must 
not expect another pair, "though," she added, as she told 
me the story, " I often suffered that winter at the sight of 
his poor little frost-bitten hands. Still, independent of 
the cost to me of replacing the gloves, which I could ill 
afford, it was of paramount importance that he should 
learn from experience that those only can have the privi- 
lege and pleasure of giving who give at the cost of per- 
sonal sacrifice." 

From his earliest childhood my father became remark- 
able for the precocity of his character and mind. Thus, 
his mother often told us how he had read to her the story 
of Gethsemane, as he sat on a little footstool at her feet, 
when he was only three years and a half old. My brothers 



20 



LIFE OF OMSAB, MALAN. 



and I, too, well remember another characteristic incident, 
often quoted by our grandfather as a stimulus to us to 
emulate our father's example when he was our age. 

I may be permitted to recount the circumstance as related 
by an elder sister, who, in common with myself, had 
often heard it from our grandparents. When he was 
within a month of his fourth year, our father received the 
reading prize at college. It was on the occasion of the 
prize day, when medals and other rewards were distributed, 
and the pupils were advanced to higher forms. The four 
syndics;" their maces in their hands, preceded by their 
ushers, and followed by the magistracy, clergy, professors, 
and agents, walked in procession through the streets, at 
the head of the school, to the sound . of church bells and 
military music, on their way to the cathedral. It was in 
1792. The small Caesar, in his child's dress, took his 
place, the only one in that attire and of that age, in the 
solemn cortege. His father had carefully instructed him 
on the subject of the three bows which he was to make, as 
he advanced, when his name was called, to the seat of the 
chief syndic who was to give the prize. He had also 
taken special pains to explain to him how, on retiring, 
after receiving his prize, he was to repeat his triple rever- 
ence without turning his hack. 

The critical moment arrived — the diminutive prizeman 
was summoned ; he advanced — trembled an instant at the 
roar of applause with which he was greeted — collected 
himself, however, the next moment — accomplished his 
bows, and received his reward. As he withdrew, engrossed 

* The syndic, or chief magistrate, answering to the consuls of the old 
Roman Republic. 



PASSAGE TO MANHOOD. 



21 



though he was with his prize, he carefully remembered 
his father's orders, " You are to make three more bows 
ou retiring." Forgetful of the rest of his instructions, 
however, he duly and reverently did homage with his 
back to the high officials, who could not refrain from 
smiling in concert with the tumultuous laughter of the 
assembly. Then, as ever through his after life, he was 
intent on obedience, though perhaps slightly oblivious of 
etiquette. 

His education had been conducted from first to last at 
the Collegiate Institution, established by the great Ee- 
former, and which, at the time of which I write, continued 
to be in much the same condition in which Calvin had left 
it. There it was that contemporary scholars contracted 
those lasting friendships which made Protestant Geneva 
less a city than a family and household. There it was 
that young men from their earliest days were trained to 
order, industry, obedience ; above all, to a faith in absolute 
equality in the presence of a common duty, — virtues 
which for so long a time have been the source of power 
and glory to the little republic. 

There it was that, in the providence of God, he who 
was to exercise such a decisive influence in his native 
town was made to participate in these ancient institutions, 
that so, from the economies of the past, he might learn 
wisdom for the guidance of the future. There it was that 
he was taught to imbibe a deep and instinctive love for 
his country. There, too, that he first drew around him 
those personal attachments by which he was afterwards 
surrounded, and that esteem which, as soon as the voice 
of prejudice had subsided, was entertained towards him 



22 



LIFE OF CJEtSAR MALAN. 



even by those who had not hesitated to place their 
passions at the service of the opposition. 

Not that, while dne place in the formation of his char- 
acter is given to these outer influences, the inner and 
more sacred sway of his home life must be forgotten. His 
frequent visits at La Claveliere left remembrances which 
he loved to recall. Under that roof it was that he acquired 
that distinction of manner and constant self-respect which 
were so conspicuous in his mother, and which became to 
him eventually a kind of second nature. 

In all the intimate intercourse to which my father 
admitted me, among all his constant manifestations of ease 
and unrestraint, never once did I know him to forget him- 
self, or suffer his unreserve to degenerate into the slightest 
approach to laxity. Even on his deathbed, his exquisite 
politeness and thoughtfulness showed itself in the case of 
the servant who waited upon him. 

His mechanical tastes, too, which clung to him to the end 
of his life, and served as a pleasant recreation through many 
years, were originally communicated to him by his mater- 
nal grandfather, and so readily taken up, that he became 
a speedy adept in their prosecution. One thing more, in 
connection with the formation and development of his 
tastes during his stay at La Claveliere, may be mentioned 
here. In this mountain home, and in the continual pre- 
sence of the grandest natural scenery, he became an 
ardent lover of nature, and acquired a taste for sketching 
and painting, together with that inward passion for the 
beautiful, which is so apparent in his prose and poetical 
effusions. 

To sum up my reminiscences of these his early years, let 



HIS FUTURE DECIDED. 



23 



me quote from some memoranda in his own handwriting, 
written in 1859 : — 

" When I was seventeen years old, and during my pro- 
secution of classical studies, I spent a year at Marseilles in 
a house of business. At that time I thought of being a 
merchant, principally to help my parents. But God kept 
me for a nobler destiny. 

" It happened thus. The pastor of Marseilles requiring 
leave of absence, the committee of his church applied to 
me to read a sermon from the pulpit every Sunday. This 
I did, I think, for about two months, and to this incident 
I trace my first aspiration after the ministry. My father 
cordially approving of my wishes, I returned to Geneva, 
and was admitted by the academy professors into their 
philosophy class. They received me back into the first 
place, the position I had formerly occupied, and thus I 
lost nothing by my year's absence at Marseilles. It is true 
that while I was away, I had regularly kept up my classical 
studies, rising generally at four A.M., and even at three, that 
I might be able to work at them before going to business. 
In addition to this, after the labours of the desk were over 
for the day, I had a few pupils to whom I gave two or 
three lessons in history and general literature." 

As a young man, my father became remarkable for the 
exemplary regularity of his life, and for his active and un- 
grudging benevolence. Many proofs are at hand that he 
exhibited from the very first in a high degree those sterling 
qualities which shone out so brilliantly in his after 
career. He was known as a " saint." It was said, (and 
the tradition was confirmed to me by one friend still alive, 
who assured me that he knew it as a fact, and was pre- 



2i 



LIFE OF C^FSAR MALAN. 



pared to prove it,) that once, during an unusually bitter 
winter, he went, unknown to his parents, night after night, 
to a wood-yard to purchase bundles of fagots, which he 
carried off and distributed himself to sundry poor families. 
Testimony, too, abounds as to his courage and presence of 
mind. How he stopped, for instance, one day, two horses 
which had run away, no one being at hand to help him. 
Also as to the depth of his sympathy with distress, how 
with earnest solicitude he watched over some wounded 
Austrian soldiers. But let me recur to his memoranda : — 

" During my four years' study of theology, and especially 
during the two last, I frequently preached, sometimes in 
the rural parishes of Geneva, sometimes in the neighbour- 
ing countries. At that time, I was utterly ignorant of 
gospel grace, and though my character as a young man was 
upright, even to severity, no thought had ever entered my 
mind of any other way of salvation than that of my own 
work and deservings. 

" From the very first, and through my mother's teaching, 
I had learned to believe in the divinity of the Son of God, 
and I remember that, at the age of fourteen, I maintained 
this verity against some of my fellow-students in the 
college room ; yet the belief was as dead within me, and 
during my four years' study, not a syllable reached me 
from the lips of my instructors calculated to call it into life. 
Moreover, the theses which I wrote under the direction of 
the professor of sacred oratory, went no further than to 
treat of human wisdom and morality ; yet, with this only 
as the testimony of my conscience, I thought myself, and 
was thought by others, very religious ; my morals were un- 
impeachable, and my general conversation reputed devout." 



ACADEMICAL TEACHING. 



25 



What my father says here about his theological studies, 
recalls to my mind what he afterwards wrote in 1835. 
" Were I to go back to my recollections of academical life 
and its theological teaching," he remarks in his " Proces du 
Methoclisme," (p. 1 8,) " I should fail to find a single instance 
in which instruction was given me on the divinity of our 
Saviour, man's fallen nature, or the doctrine of justification 
by faith. I think," he adds, "my contemporaries retain 
the same impression as myself." 

This explains the testimony of Eobert Haldane, who 
had had considerable intercourse with those "contempo- 
raries" of whom my father speaks. "If they had been 
brought up in the schools of Socrates and Plato," he 
exclaims indignantly to one of their professors, "they 
could not have been more totally ignorant of the saving 
truths of the gospel. Their studies seem to have been 
entirely devoid of all scriptural teaching whatsoever." 

"We learnt," adds one of them, (Eev. A. Bost, sen.,) 
"nothing beyond the dogmas of natural religion. The 
"New Testament was not considered necessary as a text- 
book of study for the ministry;" a statement which con- 
firms what my father has said to me over and over again, 
that so far from having been engaged in the study of the 
ISTew Testament, in the ordinary course of his theological 
training, he never even read it through till long after he 
had left the academy. 

Not that it is to be inferred from all this, that his tutors 
had failed utterly to set before him the sacredness of the 
Scriptures. As will appear : by and by, the Church of 
Geneva herself had never yet given birth to an avowed 
and direct assailant of their authority. It was from a 



2G 



LIFE OF CAESAfi MALAN. 



man who, until then, had occupied a leading position in 
the opposite camp, that such an attack eventually pro- 
ceeded, in the lifetime of the present generation. But 
there is a worse treatment of the Bible than this, and of 
that she had been guilty. To attack it openly was only 
to throw it on the defensive, to challenge a scrutiny of the 
proofs on which its authority rested, to evoke all the 
ancient ardour with which that authority was upheld. 
Never thus did the Church of Geneva treat the Bible, to 
no such prominence did she expose it, she only ignored it, 
she only passed it over in silence. Investing it with an 
exaggerated awe, her very reverence, amounting to super- 
stition, held it back from general use. Whilst admitting 
with the unhappy Bousseau, to the very fullest extent, 
" the majesty of Scripture," she would have deemed it as 
nothing short of exaggeration to take its authority as the 
only rule of faith and aim of life. Mere assertion all this, 
the proof of which remains to be established in the follow- 
ing pages. 

In 1809, my father, being tutor at the time to a banker's 
sons in the city, was appointed, after a brilliant examination, 
master of the fifth form at the college. In this post, which 
he occupied for nine years, he drew around him, in a 
marked manner, the approval and the eulogiums of his 
superiors. Bull of enthusiasm in his new work, he was 
among the first to introduce into Geneva the Bell and 
Lancaster system of teaching. In order to make himself 
acquainted with the method, he visited the school under the 
management of Bestalozzi, at that time, at Yverdon. ISTor 
did he confine himself to the use of that schoolmaster's 
text-books; he adopted also his method of logic and analysis 



ORDINATION. 



27 



as falling in peculiarly with the bent of his own mind. His 
renown was not long in spreading beyond his native city, 
and he speedily attracted the notice of foreign professors, 
especially in the north of Europe, who travelled to Geneva 
for the express purpose of visiting his class. 

It was for the use of this class, that he issued, in 
1812, his maiden work, a "Selection from the Fables of 
Phsedrus," with notes; and in 1818, the first part of an 
original Latin Poem, which contained the earliest dawnings 
of gospel faith. It is noteworthy that though this poem 
was introduced to the students with the approbation of 
the academy, it was afterwards ranked by those very men 
amongst the counts in the long indictment against him. 

He was a prime favourite with his pupils. I have often 
heard men now advanced in life speak with deep emotion 
of the time when they were under his tuition, giving proof 
that no after acrimony of controversial dispute could efface 
his image from their hearts. "No one ever knew as he 
did," said De Goltz, " the magic art of enchaining attention 
by a spell incapable of resistance, while he led captive the 
hearts and intellects of those whom he taught." It was so 
with him to the very last. Even in his old age he was to 
the young men who knew him the object of tenderest and 
closest attachment — the repository of most sacred confi- 
dences. 

In October 1810 he was ordained to the ministry, at the 
age of twenty-three. The ceremony took place in the 
church of Geneva — M. Picot, dean of the clerical body, 
presiding. The oath which he took on this occasion was 
to the following effect : — 

" You swear before God, and on the Sacred Scriptures 



28 



LIFE OF CMSAE MALAK 



open before you, to preach in its simplicity the gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ : to recognise as the only infallible 
rule of faith and conduct, the Word of God, as contained 
in the sacred books of the Old and New Testament : to 
abstain from all spirit of sectarianism: to shun every 
thing from which schism might arise, or which might tend 
to disturb the union of the Church: to hold inviolably 
secret all confessions made to you in the disburdening of 
individual consciences, except such as tend in the direction 
of high treason : and to exert yourself to the utmost for 
the edification of the Church of God, by living 'in the 
midst of the world,' in temperance, justice, and piety, and 
by devoting yourself to the zealous fulfilment of all the 
duties of your sacred calling." 

This oath clearly bound the candidate by the authority 
of the Bible alone. From the year 1806 the catechism had 
given way to the apostles' creed, and that again had 
disappeared in its turn, so as to leave Scripture standing by 
itself. This must be remembered distinctly in order to 
harmonise the course my father afterwards followed with 
the terms of his ordination vows. 

In the following year he married the younger daughter 
of M. Schonenberger of Glaris— a merchant long established 
at Geneva, where he lived in the small hamlet of Valavran. 
After having borne him twelve children, of whom eleven 
are now alive, and joined him in celebrating the thirtieth 
anniversary of their marriage, my mother closed his eyes. 
They lost, as I have just stated, only one of their number — 
my brother Jocelyn, who died in 1846. 

But to return to the period immediately following his 
ordination and marriage. 



WHAT WAS COMING. 



29 



The year was 1812; the epoch memorable as witnessing 
the birth of a religious movement in Geneva. Assem- 
blies were frequent among certain theological students, of 
whom M. Empeytaz, attracted by this proceeding alone 
the displeasure of the Venerable Assembly. Although my 
father did not participate at first in these meetings, it was 
he, nevertheless, who was to play a decisive part of uncom- 
promising testimony and action. To trace his career, how- 
ever, at this point, will be my task in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 



NEW CONVICTIONS AND STEUGGLES. 

On ! on ! till, in a bolder sweep, 

By fewer flowers, and darker caves, 

It rolls along its recent waves, 
And hurls them downward to the deep. 

The events which we are now going to describe have 
formed the subject-matter of several publications, both in 
Geneva and abroad, and have also been frequently described 
in other ways. More particular reference might be made 
to the work of M. de Goltz, already quoted, in which they 
are discussed with equal fairness and minuteness. Whilst 
reserving to myself the right to quote this authority for 
some details bearing upon my subject, I shall take care, at 
the same time, to travel the ground he has occupied in his 
reference to my father's life, with the aid of contemporary 
documents, of which the following are the most important : — 

1. W. A. Schichedantz, Ph.D., and Licentiate in Theology 
at Berlin : The Geneva Church in the Nineteenth. Century, 
first published (in German) in the "Archives of Modern 
Ecclesiastical History of Staudlin and Tjchirner," 1821. 

2. Dr J. Pye Smith : A Vindication of the Citizens of 
Geneva, and other persons, who have been instrumentalin the 
Revival of Scriptural Pieligion in that city. London, 1825. 



AUTHORITIES. 



31 



3. The Ee viewer Ee viewed, by Heresies Mastix, (T. 
Fry, Eector of Emberton), 1821: A Beply to an English 
Religious Eeview which accused M. Malan of " secta- 
rianism." 

4. The True History (French) of the Momiers of 
Geneva, followed by a notice of the Momiers of Canton de 
Vaud. By an Eye-witness. Geneva, 1824. 

5. Precis (French) of the Theological Debates which 
have for some years agitated Geneva. By T. J. Chene- 
viere, Pastor and Professor of Theology, 1824. 

6. Letter to M. Cheneviere in reply to his "Precis." By 
E. Haldane, 1824. Published in French and in English. 

7. Eeligious Geneva in March 1819. By A. Bost, 
Minister of the Gospel. 

8. A Defence of the Christians of Geneva who have 
constituted themselves into an Independent Church. By 
A. Bost. Paris, Lyons, and Geneva, 1825. 

9. Prosecution of Bost (on account of the above-men- 
tioned work), and his acquittal by two tribunals, 1826. 

And, lastly, my father's own publications : — 

10. Papers referring to his Deprivation of the College 
Mastership, 1819. 

11. The Conventicle of Eolle, 1821. 

12. Evangelical Testimony, by a Minister of God. 
(Papers referring to his compulsory secession from the 
National Church), 1823. 

13. Le Proces du Methodisme in Geneva, 1835. 

" So remarkable, and of such value, were Malan's talents 
and qualifications, that his future prominence became an 
assured thing. In appearance he was dignified and pre- 



32 



LIFE OF CMSAB, MALAK 



possessing ; he was a poet and musician ; had a good 
voice ; painted skilfully ; exhibited, in short, a genius as 
diversified as it was powerful. He had a rich and fruitful 
imagination ; his thoughts were logical and impressive ; 
his eloquence was fascinating; his temperament ardent 
and impassioned. Impelled by the nervous vigour of his 
thoughts, he pursued, with indefatigable exertion, a defi- 
nite object — that object, under the influence of gospel 
grace, the salvation of souls." 

Such is the graphic and truthful picture of my father, 
drawn by the pen of the historian of the Eevival in 
Geneva. His concluding words bring us naturally to con- 
sider the change which he underwent in his own religious 
convictions. And here it ought to be premised that this 
change, though thorough, was by no means so apparent to 
others in any external reform, as it might have been, had 
his moral character been less unimpeachable. His was no 
renewal, furnishing such an outward contrast to the past it 
had subverted as to arrest the attention of the most heed- 
less observer. If my father's case proved no exception to 
the rule that the experimental knowledge of salvation 
must be followed by a new life, this new life of his was 
not inaugurated by one of those tragical struggles of the 
soul which any observer may detect ; nor yet did it erect 
itself on the ruins, we will not say of irregular morals, but 
even of worldly habits. Bather it was a quiet transition 
from a moral, and, in a limited sense, a devout life, to a 
life genuinely spiritual, and, in the gospel sense of the 
term, renewed. Further, this new principle in him did 
not start into being by concentrating a hitherto wavering 
mind, or by supplying, under divine grace, a force and 



RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



33 



symmetry of character as yet wanting. On the contrary, 
trie message of the gospel found in him one to whom reli- 
gion was no novelty, while morality was a sternest law ; 
a man whose candid and ingenuous spirit, and resolute 
following of right, had secured for him general esteem. 
This explains how the gospel always presented itself to 
him as the proclamation of a salvation wrought for him, 
and without him, rather than as the means God had 
put into his hands to dissipate doubts by which he had 
never been distracted, and to alleviate anxieties by which 
he had never been afflicted. So far from tending to 
detract from the grandeur of the work of conversion, what 
has been urged in reference to his peculiar case rather 
illustrates its absolute necessity. It was indispensable 
that God should appear as coming Himself, with His 
word of grace, to a soul that, in consequence of the very 
virtues with which it was adorned, could not possibly, if 
left to itself, have ever felt its need of salvation. 

We have already traced to its source my father's accept- 
ance of the central doctrine of the gospel. But it was not 
till long after his childhood had received its lesson, not 
till long after his young manhood had been consecrated to 
the sacred office, that what had hitherto been with him 
an accepted dogma became matter of heartfelt experience. 
For five or six years his preaching was in decided opposi- 
tion to gospel truth. A stranger at that time to the reli- 
gious movement which was beginning to assert itself 
around him, the Bible was to him an all but sealed book. 
Happening to be travelling, on one occasion, during this 
period, and having nothing to occupy him, he tried to 

read a chapter or two as a species of distraction. But he 

c 



34 



LIFE OF CAESAB MALAN. 



found the style so old-fashioned, he declares, and the 
language so common-place, that he put the book aside, and 
betook himself to a volume of literature. 

It may not be uninteresting to quote here his own 
words in reference to his conversion, addressed, in an ex- 
planatory paper in the year 1830, to some brother pastors, 
a paper to which we shall have occasion to recur by and 
by. It may be as well to abridge it in some places, and 
to supplement, it in others by notes from a MS. of his in 
my possession. 

" At the time of my ordination at Geneva I was in utter 
ignorance of the truth as it is in Jesus. In this darkness 
I lingered till 1814, at which time I first apprehended the 
truth that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. I had had some 
indefinite idea of the importance of this truth from the 
commencement of my ministry, after a series of conversa- 
tions with a pastor of the Canton de Vaud, but it was not 
till the time above specified that I actually received it. 
Under the teaching of God's Holy Spirit, I owe this 
development of my faith to hearing the divine word from 
the lips of various Christians, among whom I may 
mention, in particular, M.M. Demellayer, Galland, Coulin, 
Gaussen, and Paul Henry of Berlin ; and, above all, M. 
Moulin." 

In his "Germain le Bucheron" my father furnishes a 
few details in reference to his eventful discussions with 
the Vaudois pastor, whose name never reached me. " I 
stopped at his village," he writes, " and preached for him 
As we were leaving the church he said to me, with a grave 
and mournful expression, ' It appears to me, sir, that you 
have not yet learnt that, in order to convert others, you 



PROGRESS. 



35 



must first be converted yourself. Your sermon was not a 
Christian discourse, and I sincerely hope my people didn't 
understand it.' Blessed salutary words ! From them 
and from all that this faithful servant of Christ added to 
them, I began to understand what a Christian means — 
what it really is to be a Christian." 

But to return to his explanatory letter. " From that- 
time I began/' he writes, " to discern the doctrine of grace 
and justification by faith without the works of the law. 
Galland often spoke of .it, and I found that, in the 
expositions I made in the week-day services, I gradually 
arrived at the truth that man is justified by faith alone. 
This was in the year 1815. At the close of that year I 
began to teach this doctrine to my pupils at the college, 
and it was then that I first encountered the admonitions 
and reproaches of those of my superiors who did not 
relish the truth I was professing." 

Whilst my father's mind was thus being gradually 
enlightened under the influence of a few of the clergy of 
Geneva, the majority of that body had already mani- 
fested a decided opposition to these scriptural opinions, 
and had supplied unmistakable evidence of their hostility 
to Malan himself. As a matter of fact, a revival had 
already commenced some years back, and at the suggestion 
of one of those very pastors, whose names we have given 
above, a society of young men had been formed in 1810, 
associated to some extent with a small Moravian com- 
munity, the commencement of which dated back to the 
visit of Count Zinzendorf to Geneva in 1 740. This little 
body numbered at that time some six or seven hundred 
members, including on its roll the names of some even of 



36 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



the magistrates of the republic. In 1810, however, the 
only fruit left of the personal exertions of Zinzendorf was 
an old lady who died eight years afterwards at the 
advanced age of ninety-four, and who, up to the time of 
her death, was the centre of a small circle of five or six 
persons. This little flock, hearing of the progress of a 
reviving work in other countries, joined in prayer for an 
extension of the blessed influence to their own. These 
prayers so regularly, so perseveringly, offered, kindled in 
the first instance that great spiritual awakening which 
burst out so gloriously not long afterwards. The first answer 
came in an inwrought impulse in the hearts of some of 
those who prayed to address themselves to the work about 
which they had been praying. Two of them, students in 
theology, whose names were Guers and Empeytaz, endea- 
voured (in the year 1813) to set up a small Sunday- 
school. The latter of them, after the visit of the famous 
Baroness de Kreudener to Geneva, acted so unhesitatingly 
on the subject of individual exertion in things spiritual 
as to provoke the authorities, in opposition, to append to 
the ordination oath the words by which the candidates 
were held to pledge themselves " to abstain from every 
species of sectarianism, and to avoid whatever might tend 
in the direction of schism, or threaten the unity of the 
Church." Eventually, at the period of which we are now 
speaking, this same student, who had just been refused 
orders in the National Church, published at Paris his 
work entitled " Considerations on the Divinity of Jesus 
Christ, addressed to the Students of Theology in the 
Church of Geneva." 

This publication was not without its influence, accord- 



HIS OWN RECORD OF HIS OPINIONS. 



37 



ing to my father, on tliose to whom it was addressed. 
Many of them joined with a few young ministers in 
preaching their new faith regularly in the rural parishes, 
or occasionally in the city. In addition to this they held 
religious meetings here and there, and their influence 
soon became felt among their fellow-students, and even 
in some families of the city. 

Meanwhile my father, absorbed in his educational work, 
with which indeed he combined an occasional ministry in 
Geneva and the country round, avoided taking any part 
in all that was going on. Beyond the sensation caused by 
the publication of Empeytaz, little indeed was generally 
known of the revival movement at this time. It was not 
till long after he had detached himself, step by step, from 
the Church to which he had originally belonged, that he 
encountered these young men whom we have specified 
above. At all events his subsequent activity could 
scarcely be traced, as far as its origin was concerned, to 
any influence exercised upon him by the revival move- 
ment — a movement which had been before him in the 
field, and whose work he was now to undertake. Accord- 
ing to his invariable rule he took an independent part in 
all that followed. With the independence of his character 
he suffered what all independent natures must suffer, and 
hence it is but fair to allow him that kind of honour 
which such natures may fairly claim. 

Looking over a volume of sermons which he published 
in 1838, I find the fullest testimony to the change which 
occurred at this time in his spiritual life. 

" I have stated, on some occasions, that my conversion 
to the Lord Jesus might, with propriety, be compared 



33 



LIFE OF CJESAE MA LAN. 



to a mother rousing an infant with a kiss — a simile 
answering exactly to my experience in recalling it. Nor 
can I look back to that blessed epoch in my life without 
magnifying His tender loving-kindness Who spared me 
the doubts, terrors, and perplexities through which so 
many souls have passed ere they tasted 'joy and peace in 
believing.' 

" For many years of my ministry I was a stranger, experi- 
mentally, to the doctrines of grace : teaching the merits of 
human righteousness, nattering human excellence, and 
holding forth a heaven of glory as the certain reward of 
human effort ; no thought even of that divine righteousness 
1 which is unto all and upon all them that believe,' ever 
crossed my mind, and consequently no suspicion that I 
was opposing it. Mine was the uttermost repose of igno- 
rance, the most entire freedom from all misgiving as to the 
truth of my creed. I spoke as I felt, as, indeed, I had been 
taught, with all the warmth and animation of youth. My 
teaching was of a G-od and Saviour alike unknown; setting 
forth, as a substitute for the witness of the Spirit, the cold 
morality of reason and the deceits of an unbelieving heart." 

In proof of his assertions, my father adds an analysis of 
a sermon preached by him in 1813 (Phil. iii. 13, 14), and 
which had been written under the special superintendence 
of one of his professors. 

In it is set forth the innocence of human nature, and a 
sinner's justification by his own merits and efforts. It 
concludes as follows : " As you contemplate the excellences 
you have already attained, and see opening before you the 
path to new achievements, you will taste a secret, ineffable 
joy. The consciousness of progress will fill your hearts 



STRANGE TEACHING. 



39 



with sweetest hope; and thus, in adding day by day to 
your previous merits, a hoard of gold tried in the fire, the 
purchase-money of immortality, you will anticipate with 
heavenly delight the arrival of that happy hour wherein 
you shall be called to render back to the Creator the souls 
which you have embellished with accumulated virtues (!) " 

He refers also to another sermon preached by him in the 
following year, in which he laboured to prove that religion 
was the only firm foundation of national virtue — a sermon 
which he says had been suggested to him by the indigna- 
tion which he had felt at hearing another discourse, setting 
forth " man's natural dignity as the true basis of popular 
virtue and prosperity;" and handling the subject precisely 
after the fashion of a heathen philosopher, ascribing all 
power and glory to human reason and human will. 

"Much general excitement resulted from this contro- 
versy. A multitude filled the church at the time my 
sermon was preached, and listened with enthusiasm to my 
flattering appeal to the national sentiment, while I talked 
about 'religion* and 'the God of our fathers,' and electri- 
fied my congregation after a fashion by fine words about 
the love of our country, and how our national piety was the 
only sure guardian of its glory." 

Let us pause here a few moments, that we may appre- 
hend the more clearly the starting-point in my father's 
new life. At first the prominent sentiment is one of sur- 
prise at the contrast between teaching such as we have 
quoted above, and that of which he was afterwards the 
foremost champion. And yet the attentive observer would 
feel that this by no means exhausted the whole matter. 
If the Holy Spirit, by a divine and mysterious action, 



40 



LIFE OF CJSSAB MALAX. 



implants in the unconscious centre of the human will and 
personality, a new and heavenly principle, He never, in a 
direct and violent manner, changes that which remains — 
the essential and distinctive feature of the individuality 
itself, which appears in its conscious activity. 

Hence the unparalleled interest of noticing the choice of 
the instrumentalities by which God is pleased to carry out 
His purposes, — the peculiar motives which lead Him in 
His wisdom to summon one man in particular, in preference 
to all others, to the execution of some particular work, He 
having already prepared him for it. 

Under the influence of these considerations, there are 
two things which will strike us at once in connection with 
the extracts quoted above. In the first place, we find at 
this point in Malan's life a religious profession, with a 
public confession of His faith in God, long before that 
special moment in which his soul was converted to the 
gospel of grace. For Malan's faith, God was the living God 
of conscience, considerably in advance of that time when 
He became enthroned in his heart as a God of sovereign 
love and free forgiving mercy. 

Our second remark points to the authority, and therefore 
to the dogmatical form which already characterised his 
religious convictions. The preacher of gospel grace has 
often been charged with this reproach. And yet it was 
observable in his teaching long before he apprehended the 
truth of a free salvation. Every item in his religious faith 
was in his eyes from the very first — even before his conver- 
sion—a truth of God, to be declared and enjoined as such. 
This is evident in the few words quoted above from his 
sermon on human merit. After having laid down the 



LOYALTY AND REVERENCE. 41 



principle, that the heart and soul of man might be infinitely 
ennobled by virtuous efforts, " Think not," he adds, " that 
this is any mere human teaching, to be accepted or rejected 
at your pleasure ; it is the very word of God, and you can- 
not discard it blamelessly." How often, in after years, he 
employed the self-same words in enforcing doctrine to 
which this was diametrically opposed ! Hence he was one 
of those men who take, not the mere indistinct authority 
only, but even the very voice of conscience, as coming to 
them direct from God. Already before his conversion to 
the gospel, Malan appears to us as a man whose solemnity 
in the treatment of religious truth was so startling, that he 
conjured up in the mind of those who heard him the image 
of a Hebrew seer; a man who, without offending his 
hearers, might have spoken of " the God before Whom I 
stand." This extreme reverence, which thus displayed 
itself long before he stood forth as a witness for the gospel, 
was in him a prominent characteristic. Ere yet the eternal 
Jehovah was to him a Father, Whose love was shed abroad 
in his heart, he beheld in Him the true and living God, 
the God in Whose awful presence his conscience ever 
uttered her voice. 

And so this belief in the living God, to be feared, and 
loved, and trusted, became in him the starting-point in a 
marked manner, the very foundation, indeed, of his whole 
religious life. Nor was it strange that it should be so, 
when we look at the simplicity and decision of his spiritual 
progress. In short, if it be true that Christ leads us to the 
Father, it is God, as God, Who leads us to the Saviour. 

In proof of what has now been said, I might advance 
many an incident in his life. I will content myself, how- 



42 



LIFE OF C^JSAB MA LAN. 



ever, with quoting a single circumstance, which happened 
at the precise period of which we are now treating : — 

It was towards the close of 1814 that my mother nearly 
succumbed to an attack of that terrible typhoid epidemic 
which followed the allied armies in their progress through 
the country ; and often and often has my father described 
to us these terrible days. Eor many weeks he never left 
her chamber, while she, lying in utter unconsciousness, had 
long been given over by the physicians. One of them, 
however, in going away, suggested the use of wine, so that 
no possible remedy might be neglected. " Never shall I 
forget that moment," said my father. " I took the cellar 
key, and went to fetch some. As I reached the foot of the 
stairs with it in my hand, I fell on my knees and prayed 
God to have mercy on me, and on you all. In my moment 
of extremity I felt as though two mighty hands were rais- 
ing me, and setting me on my feet. I ascended the stair- 
case full of a strange elation ; the crisis had passed, and 
your mother was saved, but I doubt not God Himself had 
vouchsafed me succour from on high ?" 

Those who knew him best know how thoroughly free he 
was from any tinge of superstition ; that is to say, from 
anything that tended in the direction of trust in the mys- 
terious or unknown. Yet, at the same time, he equally 
repudiated that practical infidelity which denies to the 
Almighty the right of exercising a direct control over indi- 
vidual occurrences in human life. I may add that I have 
quoted this incident, not so much with the view of calling 
up a mere bygone recollection, of which numbers might 
readily have been communicated by any of his family. 
I have placed it on record to show that even before his 



FAITH IN TEE LIVING GOD. 43 



conversion, as he himself describes it, God was always to 
him a living God ; that, so far from referring the history 
of his life to second and proximate causes, he was in the 
habit of ascribing it to the sole Supreme Cause Who 
ordained them all. 

This fundamental thought in my father's spiritual life, 
explaining, as it does, that absolute independence of char- 
acter and conduct, and more especially of teaching which 
distinguished him, must ever be regarded as the prominent 
feature of his inner history. His was one of those great 
natures to which absolute truth is a sheer necessity, and 
which draw towards it from every point, as towards an 
atmosphere essential to their very life. Before the eyes of 
such there stands out but one stupendous fact — a fact 
eclipsing every other, namely, the infinite and ever-present 
reality, the constantly actual truth, the ever-efficacious aud 
essentially free will of the living God. 

And if I put this stress on the living theism which, in 
my father's case, preceded a not less living Christianity, 
it is because, as it seems to me, truth such as this de- 
mands clearest and most emphatic notice at the time when 
believers are compelled, by the open negation of the 
supernatural in historical facts, to summon even greater 
decision to the maintenance of their faith in its eternal 
reality, such as they derived it from their personal expe- 
rience of the living God. 

With my father, the fear of the Lord in fullest operation 
was the secret of all his activity. Hence flowed that early 
decision and lucidity of word and action which purged 
him from all taint of hesitation, which suffered no doubt 
to cross his mind, which, in a word, made him a man 



44 



LIFE OF CjESAR MALAN. 



whose walk was stamped with simplicity, independence, 
and acknowledged superiority. 

Such a man was eminently needed in Geneva, at the 
time of which we are writing, to recall in its pulpits the 
lively and definite preaching of evangelical truth, among 
a clergy who knew nothing of the doctrines of grace, 
and in the midst of a population who had lost even the 
rememhrance of them. Later, the same city needed such 
a man again, to keep up, in the midst of the clisputings of 
dissenters who constantly felt themselves in danger of put- 
ting too much stress upon Church questions, (with all the 
noisy personal debates which such questions are apt to 
raise up), the simple living testimony of those same gospel 
doctrines as of the one thing really needful. 

As has been already remarked, it was in the year 1816 
that my father attained to the faith of salvation by grace, 
a year termed by himself " the year of deliverance." At 
its commencement he contracted an intimacy with two 
pious foreigners, M. de Sach from Berlin, as well as with 
M. Wendt, the worthy Lutheran pastor in Geneva. " One 
evening," he writes, " we had a Bible reading in Ch. de 
Sach's apartment. The subject was the 5th of Eomans. I 
was greatly impressed by the whole of it, particularly by 
the 10th verse, ' Lor in that He died, He died unto sin 
once ; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.' " At 
the same period in his life the incident occurred which is 
stated in his preface to his " Temoignage de Dieu." " One 
afternoon, while I was reading the New Testament at my 
desk, while my pupils were preparing their next lesson, I 
I turned to the 2d chapter of Ephesians. "When I came 
to the words, { By grace are ye saved through faith, and 



ROBERT HALDANE. 



45 



that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God/ the passage 
seemed to shine out before my eyes. I was so deeply 
moved by it that I was compelled to leave the room and 
take a turn in the courtyard, where I walked up and down 
exclaiming with intensest feeling, c I am saved ! I am 
saved!'" 

The significance of all this is obvious. My father's 
lively recollection of it, after an interval of so many years, 
shows that it was indeed the starting-point in his spiritual 
experience. The Word of God effected it with its emphatic 
declaration that God makes us a free gift of eternal life 
through faith alone. 

It was not till afterwards that he began to read, as I 
learn from his own memoranda, "JL'Abroge des Doctrines," 
by B. Pictet, and " La Confession de Foi de Pays Bas." It 
was not till a still subsequent period in the autumn of 
1816, that he met casually for the first time at a hotel 
the venerable E. Haldane. Some months afterwards, in 
the spring of 181 7, he was constantly with him. To that 
man of God he owed his first lucid and definite apprehen- 
sion of salvation by grace alone. "From that time," he 
says himself in the paper to which reference has already 
been made, "I was in the faith, though I had not the assur- 
ance of salvation. That blessing I experienced while Mr 
Haldane, whom I love as a father, instructed me in the 
way of the Lord more perfectly. This was at the com- 
mencement of the year 1817, a period at which I made 
the acquaintance also of Dr Mason, and of the Eev. 
M. Bruen of New York, with whom I read and meditated 
over the Word of God." 

The following passage, referring to the visit then made 



46 LIFE OF CAESAB MA LAN. 

to Geneva by these two men, occurs in a letter of Eev. M. 
Bruen, dated March, 16, 1816, quoted in Dr Mason's Me- 
moirs, page 454* 

". . . . It gives me great pleasure to find that . . . . 
especially among the young ministers and the students, 

there is a strong inclination towards the truth 

They are anxious to seize every opportunity of instruc- 
tion." After having mentioned E. Haldane's visit, he 
also speaks of student meetings which took place at Dr 
Mason's lodgings : " It could not fail to strike me as very 
remarkable that we should have arrived here just at this 
time, when the line is become marked ; and it is evident 
that Dr Mason's character and instructions will not be 
without effect." "Yes, my dear and venerable friend," 
writes my father himself to Dr Mason some time later, 
" nothing is more certain than that your remembrance and 
that of Bruen have guided me in critical moments." (Ibid, 
p. 458.) We shall see presently to what sort of influence 
my father alluded in these words. 

A detailed account occurs in his " Conventicule de 
Eolle " of his interviews with E. Haldane. 

More than forty years afterwards the remembrance of 
these interviews was still vivid. Here are some passages 
from a letter he wrote in 1859 to the nephew of E. Hal- 
dane, who had sent him the memoir of his uncle and his 
father. (Memoir of E. and J. Haldane.) " I cannot refrain, 
my dear Alexander, from speaking to you of your father 
and of your uncle. I have just perused their biography, 
and I humble myself deeply before the sight of their 

* Memoir of John M. Mason, D.D., &c. By Jacob van Vechten. New 
York: Carter, 1856, 1 vol. 



B. AND J. HALDANE. 



47 



activity. How poor seems the work of present workmen 
in the Church of the Lord J esus, when we compare it with 
the works and the offerings of a Eobert and of a James 
Haldane ! I am literally astounded at the sight of such 
labours, and I cannot say how much I regret not having 
been aware that these men had been put into such circum- 
stances by the Lord Jesus, when I had the happiness and 
the great privilege of knowing them. But how could I 
have been aware of it ? Was it even possible to discern 
such workmen of God in these humble, modest, and, as 
one may say, humble instruments of His grace ? How I 
delight in recalling them to my mind's eye, going over, as 
much as I am able, both their teachings and their counsels, 
seeing in both of them that light of the Bible, to which 
alone they bowed. 

" As for myself, dear friend, endeavouring as I do, until 
my end, to proclaim that same voice, I feel more and more 
every day how much I need that the Lord should put in 
me the same spirit, the same fervour, the same self-abne- 
gation which he implanted in your worthy and kind 
father, in your beloved and so justly-honoured uncle ! 
May God strengthen all who understand what their work 
has been ! How I long to hear you speaking to me once 
more of both these examples. I dare not say of these 
masters, as they would say with myself, poor unworthy that 
I am, we have only one Master" &c. 

That truly apostolic Christian was the means of impart- 
ing, not only to him, but also to his friend Gaussen, that 
joyous and lively assurance of salvation which stamped 
from that time his Christian course. At the time that he 
recorded all this, that change had only just occurred. But 



is 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



here is his after testimony on the subject, written in 1824, 
to a Scotch friend : — 

"It pleased the Lord, about this period, to enlighten 
and convert my soul, and to dispose me to listen to the 
pious instruction of an Apollos from your country, who 
taught me from the Scriptures the value of the pearl of 
great price, of the treasure hid in the field. I was made 
rich, and, from that blessed hoar, I viewed the world and 
heaven, time and eternity, man and his God, under quite a 
different aspect. A total reformation seemed to have 
taken place in my moral and intellectual being. The 
Bible taught me that the duration of this world bears no 
proportion to eternity ; and that that man only appeared 
to me to be, in truth, alive, whose life is hid with Christ in 
God; out of Christ everything seemed to me to be dead; 
and therefore I relinquished several of the common 
branches of education, which I deemed unconnected with 
true life, with the existence of the soul in that kingdom 
which the gospel had taught me to know and love as my 
everlasting habitation." — (Letter on the Principles of 
Christian Education, addressed to J. Campbell, of Carbrook, 
by Dr Malan. Edinburgh, 1826, page 35, seq.) 

This may serve to show us how, from its very begin- 
ning, the change which happened in my father's convictions 
and views, was to himself, at the same time, an absolute and 
irrevocable relinquishing of his past life and pursuits. The 
new birth was for him no mere resuscitation of the proper 
human nature of the soul, but, in the fullest sense of the 
term, a new creation ; a fact entirely and absolutely new. 
He apprehended Christ and His work not as the mere con- 
summation of all work of God, subjective or objective, 



HIS FAITH IN ACTION. 



49 



but as an unprecedented fact in the history of humanity ; 
as a fact whose unlooked-for occurrence eclipsed in his 
eyes all the incidents in the long detail of preparation 
that had inaugurated it. Challenged to a struggle with 
traditions, deriving no little strength from their age and 
respectability, to a struggle in which he was to stand 
alone, and through which he was to be upheld by his 
reliance on a personal Saviour, it was only to be expected 
that his faith should assume a proportionate abrupt- 
ness of assertion. Naturally he clung to it, (not as others 
might,) as the highest exercise of the human soul, such 
as God at first conceived it. He regarded faith in the 
special aspect which it ever presents to man fallen 
from his celestial origin, as directly miraculous in its 
character. But this peculiarity of his renewed life, 
which, if it had merely shown itself in his teaching or in 
his bearing towards others, would have deservedly pro- 
cured him the reproach of intolerant and fanatical bigotry, 
displayed itself, above all, in the sacrifices to which, 
under its influence, he was impelled. From the very 
outset his personal piety was strictly practical, and free 
from any taint of indecision or guilty compromise. Hence, 
no sooner had he received from the divine word the 
impressions he has described, than he not only set to 
work at once to destroy all his previous manuscripts, 
but also a large collection of classic authors which he had 
carefully amassed, and which had been up to that time his 
choicest possession. Of course he did this on the impulse 
of the moment, inasmuch as he put copies of the very 
same classics afterwards into the hands of his sons, though 
he never resumed the reading of them himself, seeing 

D 



50 



LIFE OF CAESAB MALAN. 



the "Word of God only in the Bible, restricting the service of 
God to the preaching of that Word. Doubtless there may 
have been something in such a mode of action calculated 
to shock those who were apt to get discouraged at the 
sight of a decision they could not imitate, together with 
those who, although fully agreeing with him in their faith 
in the reality of God's kingdom, did not, nevertheless, 
limit that kingdom to the mere invisible world. Yet these 
even showed themselves eager to rekindle their faith at 
the fire of his ; nor could they, whenever they approached 
him, fail to admire that simplicity and consistency which 
imparted to his belief a real character of greatness. 

It was impossible for such a man to remain long without 
rendering public testimony to the truth which was possess- 
ing his soul. 

It was on the loth March 1817, that it pleased God to 
enable Malan to uprear once more in Geneva, the soiled 
standard of her ancient faith, and to proclaim openly from 
Calvin's pulpit that gospel whose blessed echoes had so 
Ions; ceased to be heard in her national churches. 

Even before his intercourse with Haldane he had 
preached in a country church (on Christmas Day, 1816, and 
January 19, 1817,) a sermon on "justification by faith 
alone." It was not, however, till after that intercourse 
that he preached it again in the city, on the 5th and 6th 
of March at the Easter Festival. 

That sermon was a national event, and became a date in 
the religious history of Geneva. " The preacher's burning 
utterances," says Haldane, " fell like a thunderclap on those 
who heard him/' all which is best described in his own 
words : — 



AN EVENTFUL SERMON 



51 



" I preached/' lie writes, " in a large church which was 
too small, however, for the congregation which thronged to 
it. The time was evening, and the solemnity of the twi- 
light gloom added its impression to the appeal which I 
pressed home to the consciences of the unbelieving and 
self-righteous among my hearers. I was listened to at 
first in the most profound silence : a silence resulting, 
however, from surprise and displeasure. Signs of dis- 
satisfaction were speedily apparent as I went on to demon- 
strate the falsehood of human righteousness, and to exalt 
the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus 
Christ. There arose murmurs of discontent, and move- 
ments of ill-concealed impatience, and when I pointed 
with my hand to the wall at the right of the pulpit, ex- 
claiming, ' If at this moment the mysterious hand, which 
in Babylon of old — in the midst of an idolatrous revel — 
wrote in silence on the wall the death doom of a dissolute 
king; if that hand were to appear now and trace upon 
these stones the history of the months, and days, and 
hours of your life from the time when you first dedicated 
it to God; if these mysterious characters shone forth in 
betrayal of your deeds and thoughts, wrought and con- 
ceived when no eye but that of the Holy One was upon 
you ; — tell me which of you would dare to confront the 
writing ? Does not the bare thought of such a thing make 
you tremble ? and is not the involuntary desire to banish 
such a possibility from your minds none other than the 
voice of conscience reproaching you with similar indig- 
nities, with similar consciousness of guilt V At this 
moment several of my hearers turned unconsciously to- 
wards the wall at which I had been pointing, others 



52 



LIFE OF CESAR MALAX. 



shrugged their shoulders, while the greater number mani- 
fested an impatience which broke loose from all restraint 
when, addressing myself a moment afterwards to the 
sinner who hoped to earn salvation by his own deserv- 
ings, I exclaimed, c Seek then to know, 0 transgressor, 
what it is that keeps thee from Christ ! Inquire without, 
inquire within : leave no means untried to ascertain the 
hindrance. As I ask the momentous question, I wait for 
your reply. Search through the whole of your inner life 
and its history : what can you discover — of what are you 
possessed fit to offer to your God ? Your body is defiled, 
your heart is earthly, your soul stained with sin. What 
have vou then to brino; forth ? Answer before God Whose 
presence fills this house ! "What — what can you offer as 
the price of your soul ? 

" ' Poor sinner ! God asks thee for s;old, for sjold weighed 
in the balance of the sanctuary, and you have nothing but 
dross, and a righteousness, as saith the prophet, which is 
but filthy rags. "What, then, is the issue of all contro- 
versies with God? What but the utter confusion of the 
flesh, the utter destruction of claims to human merit, and 
the hopelessness of those efforts; by which you sought to 
save your souls ? 

" ' And what is to become of you if you have no other 
ground of confidence ? Say, proud man, where will be 
your refuge on the judgment-day if you yourself are your 
own advocate with the Father, your own propitiation for 
your numberless sins ? 

" f It is an easy matter now to answer with apparent con- 
fidence, while the longsuffering of your God is sparing 
you, "What, but my virtues, my righteousness, my in- 



FAITHFUL WORDS. 



53 



tegrity ?" But it will not be always so ; a few years more, 
and what then ? Oh, follow me to the throne of the Holy 
God ; come into the presence of Him Who tries the very 
hearts and reins, Who hath purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity. Stand there with all your works, your virtues, 
your pride, your presumption. See the heavens passing 
away with a great noise, and the elements melting with 
fervent heat ! See this Christ Whom thou hast rejected, on 
the throne of judgment : no longer meek and lowly, but 
clothed with glory and girded about with power, ready to 
execute justice, and to destroy the despisers of His gospel. 
See His elect gathered from the four winds ; His angels 
veiling their faces ; His saints casting their crowns at the 
feet of Him Who was dead, but Who is alive for evermore ! 
See heaven united in praising His loving-kindness, whilst 
the rebellious wail because of Him, and smite their hands 
upon their breasts. See yet again Satan the accuser 
standing in the presence of your Judge. Xow come for- 
ward, step forth into the midst. Fear not. What ! don't 
you know that you are righteous, that you are upright, 
that you are pure, that you are honest. Haven't you said 
as much a thousand times over ? Why then this deadly 
pallor ? Why this confusion of face, this horrible dread 
carrying away your very soul ? You — all of you — sinners 
without Christ — how comes it that the mere conjecture 
of such things, the mere word of a fellow-sinner describ- 
ing them, fills you with unutterable dismay. . . ."' 

At these words, a movement as of derision ran through 
the congregation; and when the preacher left the pulpit 
he strode through the crowd like a soldier drummed out 
by his comrades, or a criminal marching to execution. 



54 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAX. 



In the present day, those who would have resented the 
preacher's words, who would have cowered with dismay 
under the terrible irony that accompanied them, or shrunk 
from the pointed application which his apocalyptical ima- 
gery conveyed, would have contented themselves simply 
with avoiding his ministry for the future ; and that because 
men are at length beginning to learn that most elementary, 
though most sacred of truths, that religion is a personal 
concern. At the time, however, of which I am writing, 
the prevalent idea, not in Geneva only, but throughout the 
Continent generally, was that of a national religion, a 
religion whose institutions were to be submitted to in 
such sort as not to aggress on the individual conscience. 
Under such circumstances, the religious public felt justified 
in looking for deferential consideration from the oro;an of 
their so-called religious system, or, in other words, from 
each of their preachers. Meanwhile, when national 
Churches have reached the climax of extinguishing the 
sense of dutv and obligation in the individual members of 
their Churches, their days are numbered ; and secession, 
with all that the word implies, is the inevitable result of 
so false a position, a truth which, even in the present day, 
we do well to remember. 

But to return to the events of the Sth March 1817, and 
to the sermon of that day, a sermon characterised by De 
Goltz as an eloquent, powerful, and singularly lucid expo- 
sition of gospel truth. 

His own parents, says Haldane's biographer, deserted 
Mm. His wife even was extremely distressed. Each look 
she gave him seemed to reproach him with the destruction 
of the dreams of the past — the shipwreck of the bright 



HOW THE TRUTH WAS' RECEIVED. 55 



hopes of the future. He returned home in his robes, fol- 
lowed by the scorn of the populace, and borne down by its 
weight. But as he crossed the threshold of his door, and 
was about to retire into his study, he caught sight of the 
dignified figure and benevolent face of Eobert Haldane, 
who exclaimed, as he shook him warmly by the hand, 
" Thank God, the gospel has again been preached in 
Geneva;" and added, "You will be a martyr to the truth 
in this place," meaning "a witness." 

" I shall never forget," says Haldane, " the signs of 
amazement and indignation which I beheld in the counte- 
nances of some of those who were present during that 
sermon." Of this the young minister himself had speedy 
proof in a visit, the next day, from the Pastor Cheneviere, 
who came to implore him, in the name of the clerical 
body, " to change his doctrine on account of the mischief 
that might ensue from preaching that good works were not 
required as the procuring cause of salvation." " Such is 
my firm belief," he answered, and closed the controversy ; 
and from that time all the city pulpits, and most of those 
in the country, were firmly shut against him. 

But it required more than human power to close his 
lips. Burning with a holy zeal to proclaim to his fellow 
citizens the truths to which he owed his own spiritual 
life, he became all the more convinced, as he himself said, 
that the joy which filled his own soul would yet be com- 
municated to the hearts of those who should hear him ; 
and that they, too, delighting in the blessed tidings of sal- 
vation by faith in Jesus Christ, would accept it heartily, 
and repudiate the unscriptural figments of human right- 
eousness. 



50 



LIFE OF CJESAF, MALAX. 



And yet lie had. by no means, contemplated at tins time 
a secession from the National Church, as was evident 
from his refusing, in the month of July in that very year, 
sundry "brilliant offers made to him on condition of his 
forming a congregation of his own, and becoming pastor of 
an independent body* Still less were his religious re- 
quirements satisfied by those small meetings, which had 
been a subject of debate for two or three years. " 1 
attended one of them," he said, " and was by no means 
pleased with the result. Too much sensation — too little 
truth. And those of my own family, who had spoken 

* I quote once more, on this special point, the testimony of Mr Bruen, as 
I find it in a letter of his to Dr Mason, dated 7th Xov. 1S17, touching the 
event? of which he was a witness in Geneva ^ Memoirs of Dr Mason, p. 454.) 

'•' While Malan suffered in this way, he was incessantly pressed to 
separate himself entirely from the Church, and to be at the head of a small 
number who had left the communion. Motives were presented to him in 
every shape, especially in that most likely to affect a man of such ardent 

feelings I cannot but rejoice that Malan has not joined them. 

Although with his energy, eloquence, and piety, things would at present 
have borne a very different aspect, yet we must doubt whether, with so 
many pastors decidedly orthodox in the Church \there are five avowedly 
so), this measure of d.ernier ressort was necessary. If the question were, 
whether Malan should preach at all or not, it were easy to answer ; but 
this interdict may be temporary. Some think it will be so ; and the 
ground taken by its authors and defenders always goes on this supposition — 
and it does not extend be\"ond the limits of our Canton — so that Malan has 
within a few days been preaching at Bern and Xeufchatel. To have 
joined in that separation would have been to shut himself from all con- 
nection with the Helvetic Churches, and from a large and promising field of 

usefulness As to the Church of Geneva in particular, there is a 

great deal to be said for, as well as against, breaking communion with it. 
To be obliged to acknowledge the ministrations of Arian pastors, who hold 
and exercise rights most contradictory to Christian principles and li berty, 

is deeply distressing If there had been here a man of Calvin's 

power to organise a separation of the precious from the vile, and shake off 
at once, with the heretics, those shackles which bind religion to the state ; 
if the orthodox could have been closely united or brought to this, it had 
been a glorious result," &c. 



THE " REGLEMENT. " 



57 



to me about them, I discouraged from being present at 
them; saying that I did not approve of the doctrine 
taught, or the hymns sung." 

It was at this time that certain views of baptism, im- 
parted from England, began to find favour in the Church 
of the " Bourg de Four."* By and by it will be seen 
that, at the moment when he was on the point of em- 
bracing them, he turned round and denounced them 
publicly. 

And yet, notwithstanding all this, and that the diver- 
gence between Malan and the rest of the clergy was on 
a question strictly dogmatic, that body had come to a 
firm resolve to suffer none of their Churches to be infected 
with his teaching. And on the 3d May 1817 they issued, 
in their capacity as an ecclesiastical authority, the follow- 
ing " Eegulation :" — 

" The clergy of Geneva, in a spirit of humility, peace, and 
Christian love, convinced that the present circumstances 
of the Church committed to their care, call for measures 
of a wise and prudential character, determines — without 
attempting to prejudge the questions involved, and without 
seeking to trench on liberty of opinion — to exact of all 
candidates to the ministry, and of all ministers seeking to 
exercise their functions in the Church of Geneva, a pledge 
of which the following shall be the substance : — 

" We bind ourselves, so long as we continue to reside 
and to preach in the Canton of Geneva, to abstain from 
dogmatising, either through an entire discourse or portion 
of it, — 

* The name given to the congregation of dissenters which had just 
seceded to these meetings. 



58 



LIFE OF CJSSAE MALAN. 



" 1. On the manner whereby the divine and human 
natures are united in the person of Jesus Christ ; 
" 2. On original sin ; 

" 3. On the mode of the operations of grace, or on the 
nature and degree of its efficacy ; 
" 4. On predestination. 

" We bind ourselves also not to attack, in any public 
discourse, the opinions of any individual minister on these 
points. 

" And, lastly, should we be led to speak on any of these 
subjects, to do so calmly, and avoiding expressions foreign 
to Holy Scripture, and confining ourselves as closely as 
possible to the language of the Bible." 

Such was the tenor of the Eegulation of the 3d May, 
which we may confidently style the beginning of the reli- 
gious troubles of Protestantism in Geneva. 

At first sight this step would appear to have been taken 
merely with a view of calming the excitement that was 
beginning to make itself apparent. On looking at it a 
little closer, however, more especially in the light of subse- 
quent events, it will be clear that everything turned on 
the construction placed upon its language by the authori- 
ties, and the way in which they employed it. We are not 
a little surprised, after a closer examination, to notice that 
the doctrines which, according to its stipulations, are to be 
announced in the words of Scripture only, are spoken of 
in the same breath as " individual opinions," or as "views." 
Evidently those who had had a hand in drawing up this 
document confounded dogma and faith. Thanks to that 
confusion, they qualified themselves, as it should please 
them, either to force dogma to give way before what they 



OBJECTS OF THE « REGLEMENT." 59 



would call the sacred rights of faith, or should the in- 
terests of the latter only be concerned, to represent the 
claim they urged as the inopportune affirmation of an 
effete dogmatism. Events soon proved for which of these 
two contingencies this Eegulation had been framed. 

At all events, none could assert that its main object 
was to prohibit the putting forth of theological subtleties 
from the pulpit. Such an idea never occurred to any 
one. Indeed, the scientific questions these points imply 
were not only new to the religious public of Geneva, but 
the clergy themselves on both sides were entirely wanting 
in that peculiar scientific lore which has a tendency to 
create in certain minds an enthusiasm for pure theological 
controversy. It was the fact of our Lord's divinity that 
was being disputed, and that alone. 

As a melancholy result of that spirit of tergiversation 
and disingenuousness — that fettering of opinion and craft 
of policy which Eousseau had already satirised in his 
caustic fashion among the clergy of his own country in the 
preceding century — this Eegulation was only quoted for the 
purpose of excluding from the pulpit, not the indiscreet 
proclamation of what would have been a mere theological 
dogmatism, but men of mark, of ability, and zeal, whose 
only aim it was to plant in the bosom of a " Christianised 
deism" the eternal verities of the gospel. 

At first the Eegulation was kept a secret. When it had 
been originally proposed to the ecclesiastical authorities in 
the Venerable Assembly, three of them refused their as- 
sent. As for Malan, being only a minister,* and not one of 

* i.e., a preacher without office. The Compagnie is the assembly of the 
pastors, viz., of the clergymen in office. — Note by Translator. 



60 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



the " body," he only heard of it indirectly, and received 
at once an assurance from the majority of his brethren (he 
was the senior of the ministers and entitled to act in their 
name) that they would unite with him in at once protest- 
ing against it. 

As soon as the issuing of the Eegulation had reached 
the ears of M. Cellerier de Satigny — a man universally and 
most justly beloved and esteemed — he hastened to my 
father and implored him to abstain from any immediate 
protest. In a letter in reply, dated 20th May, my father 
says : — " You cannot think what anxiety your arguments 
have caused me. They have tended greatly to modify any 
expressions I might use on this question, but my main 
conviction remains unaltered. I have an unconquerable 
aversion to any temporising course, or to the appearance 
even of failing, by my silence, in my duty to God and the 
pure faith of the gospel. My brother," he added in con- 
clusion, " is it not possible to make no mention of such an 
engagement ?" 

Meanwhile, on the 2 2d of May, the day of the annual 
conference of ministers, my father, who had to be present 
on the occasion, was so deeply moved that my mother, 
(who, I may mention in passing, had for some time come 
to share in his views), being similarly affected, put a paper 
into his hands containing these words : — " This is a day 
wherein you should give glory to God ! Abide by your 
vows to Him, and fear nothing !" 

The Eegulation having been read and presented to the 
ministers for their acceptance, Malan, who had received 
the thanks of the meeting at its commencement for his 
teaching at the college, wanted to reply. He was refused 



OPPOSES THE " REGLEMENT." 



Gl 



permission, however, and that, too, in a very decided 
fashion. Eventually, he had to leave the assembly with- 
out being able to do more than declare that he would 
never submit to its requirements. As for those who had 
promised to join him in such a protest, they remained 
silent. 

On that day week he addressed a letter to the As- 
sembly, in which, while he expressly stated that he could 
not submit to their will in the matter of the Eegulation, 
he at the same time gave them to understand that he was 
prepared to follow their guidance in everything appertain- 
ing to the management of the Church in non-spiritual 
things, and concluded by asking permission to preach on 
the 8th of June. 

Whereupon the moderator replied that his protest was 
returned to him, that he could not be suffered to preach 
unless he complied with the Eegulation, adding that the 
clerical body would regard a renewal of that request as a 
virtual submission. What followed I will record in my 
father's words : — 

" From that time, every effort was made to convince me 
that this Eegulation did not touch upon matters of con- 
science. Those who had prepared it, I was reminded, were 
the same friends, the same pastors, that I had known and 
honoured from my childhood. ISTo one knows what distress 
it caused me to refuse compliance, or the anxiety with 
which I pondered every possible method of reconciling 
their wishes and my duty. On the other hand, I was then 
but an infant in the faith, a new convert, and almost stag- 
gered at my own apparent audacity in opposing the Vener- 
able Assembly. 



62 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



" Then it was that I looked away for a moment from my 
Bible and the will of my God to the concern of my friends. 
As a natural result, and by their advice, I consented to 
apply for permission to preach, assuring the Moderator 
that my sermon would in no way violate the stipulations of 
the Regulation." 

The application was not granted, however, and Malan 
renewed it two months afterwards in a long letter to the 
Assembly, dated the 1st August. It ran as follows : — 

" Remember, gentlemen, that I am more than thirty 
years old; remember how, during that time, I have dili- 
gently followed the course of study prescribed for the minis- 
try ; that I have received holy orders at your hands ; that 
I have acquitted myself as a minister of Christ for more 
than six years, without reproach. Remember, too, that the 
ministry of the gospel has ever been my chosen work, and 
that I have ever held myself as belonging heart and soul 
to the Church, and especially to the Church of Geneva. 
Consider also, venerable brethren, that I have never 
preached any doctrine or advocated any opinion that was 
not strictly evangelical ; and that, if I find it utterly im- 
possible now to comply with your wishes in this matter of 
the Regulation, it is because I cannot be disloyal to those 
dictates of my conscience which you yourselves have taught 
me to respect and obey. I have been accused of wishing 
to secede from the Church; yet, God knows, the bare 
thought of secession is foreign to my soul. My reverend 
brethren, I am no sectarian ; my only desire, the one wish 
of my heart, is to prove by faithful preaching of the gospel 
that I have not been unwisely entrusted with that sacred 



LETTER TO THE ASSEMBLY. 



63 



ministry which, by the grace of God, I have received at 
your hands." 

He then goes on to say, in reference to an appeal 
addi^ssed to him from abroad, and also to those offers to 
which reference has already been made, " Though I were 
besought to discharge by other means that ministry of 
which your adverse decision would seek to deprive me, 
I would pointedly refuse, until I had again had recourse, 
and had recourse in vain, to your charity — or, shall I say, 
to your justice. 

" I implore you, therefore, by the peace which should 
reign in the Church of Christ, to suffer me to exercise my 
ministry without let or hindrance, and thus to put an end 
to the cavils and blasphemies of ignorant and wicked men." 

On referring to certain expressions in this letter in the 
year 1823, my father did not scruple to censure them as 
smacking of a carnal sensibility, and to point out the 
hidden thirst for approbation lurking in them. It was 
not even read, however, in the Assembly, as the writer 
withdrew it at the instigation of the Moderator, and post- 
poned all further action on the subject, while the dispute 
was pending between them, for more than a year. 

Meanwhile, the movements of Dissent were by no means 
arrested in Geneva, and, to quote my father's testimony, 
" the blows which were aimed at the faithful, only served 
to strengthen the stakes of the reviving Church." The 
"Petite Eglise"* was set up, the Lord's Supper was 
administered in it, and the clergy began to take note of its 

* "La petite Eglise" was the first name given to the dissenters of the 
Bourg de Four. 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



existence. Notwithstanding their undoubted influence, the 
magistracy gave reiterated proof of their determination 
to maintain religious liberty. As for my father, he gave 
himself up entirely to his college work, and carefully 
abstained from any act of adhesion to the new community. 
When, however, he found that, in consequence of the pro- 
ceedings of the clerical body, no pulpit was accessible to 
him in Geneva, he began in June 1817 to preach at Ferney 
Voltaire, a village three miles from the city, on the French 
frontiers. Impelled, at the same time, by the constraining 
desire to spread abroad the knowledge of the faith he held 
so precious, he established a Sunday school in his college 
class-room, which numbered some two hundred and fifty 
young people. Five months had scarcely elapsed before 
the ecclesiastical authorities deprived him of the use of the 
class-room for that purpose, and the school was broken up 
for a year, till it was re-opened by my father in the year 
1818 in his own house, which he had purchased in the 
Faubourg du Pre l'Eveque. The next move of the authori- 
ties was to recommend the pastors to do all in their power 
to keep the youth of their parishes from attending that 
school. In spite, however, of this opposition, my father 
soon had a hundred and twenty pupils — sixty boys and 
sixty girls, or upwards. It was for the use of these classes 
that he published, in 1818 and 1824, two little catechisms, 
with seventy-one questions and answers, under the title 
"The Little Christian Boy," and "The Little Christian 
Girl." These catechisms are models of simplicity, clear- 
ness, and systematic arrangement. They were soon after- 
wards translated into English. 

In 1816, he had established an asylum for outcast girls, 



SPECIAL WORK. 



65 



which lie maintained by means of funds collected by him 
in Geneva and abroad, and in the direction of which he 
exhibited, as might easily be proved by instances, the 
marvellous energy and charity of his spirit. Of these un- 
happy ones, rescued by Malan himself from the purlieus of 
the city, and even from a higher grade, some were so bene- 
fited under the discipline of their new home, and derived 
such advantage from the kindly and judicious administra- 
tion to which they were subjected, that the majority of 
them were not only restored to society, but of these not a 
few became denizens of a better, a heavenly kingdom. 
In a certain English volume, I met once with an account 
of a visit which the author, in company with my father, 
made to two of these women. He speaks in the passage to 
which I refer of " that Israelite, indeed, to whom, notwith- 
standing the calumnies heaped upon him, so many anxious 
souls are looking amongst those who desire the regener- 
ation of Geneva." As for the special work to which we 
have been referring, he says that Malan's ministry in this 
particular had been sufficiently blessed to give him 
abundant encouragement to persevere. After years of 
prayer, enteaty, and longing, he had seen some of them 
bowed down like Mary at the feet of Jesus. And then 
follow details in proof of these assertions. 

In this asylum my father preached every Sunday 
After he had been dismissed from his collegiate post, it 
slipped out of his hands, and soon ceased to exist. Some 
years ago, one of the established clergy of Geneva founded 
it anew, and the fact of his having done so, as well as the 
way in which he did it, was a special gratification to 
my father at the close of his life. 

E 



OG 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



It would appear from his notes, that in this same year, 
1817, he devoted himself almost entirely to studying the 
New Testament, taking it with him wherever he went, that 
he might avail himself of every possible opportunity of 
reading it. 

A letter written to my mother from Chamouni, where 
he was staying at the time with a Christian friend, will 
give the best idea of his state of mind at this period. 
After having described his sensations on visiting the " Mer 
de Glace," he goes on to say, " We have had most earnest 
Christian intercourse with with old Balmat, one of M. de 
Saussure's guides. How blessed a thing it is thus to con- 
secrate all our enjoyments ! How sweet to walk in com- 
munion with the Creator of all these glories, our personal 
Saviour, Who hath loved us with such unutterable love !" 
Then, in reference to some pious English people whom he 
had met, he adds, " What thanks, my dear one, are due to 
our gracious Father for giving me already so many Chris- 
tian friends. Alas ! He had to choose them for me amongst 
foreigners ! My countrymen do not know what it is to 
live in Christ. I never enjoyed a trip like this before. It 
is true that it is the first time I ever travelled with a 
kindred spirit, with one whose soul cleaves to what I feel 
to be beyond everything in worth." Then, after a few 
lines of poetry in which he lifts up his soul in view of the 
magnificence around him, to " the hope of eternal life," he 
adds others on the subject of " heart-union," bearing upon 
the " Hotel de l'Union," which was then being built. 

At Geneva, however, he felt very keenly his exclusion 
from the pulpit. Meanwhile, he was urged on all sides to 
submit to the Eegulation, as bearing only on questions of 



URGED ON ALL SIDES. 



67 



Church discipline, and not of faith. In the month of 
January 1818 more especially, he tells us that many of the 
clergy pressed him anew to follow the example of his 
brethren who had accepted it in a pacific spirit, with 
no other end in view than the maintenance of peace. 
Among these, the venerable Cellerier made every effort 
to convince my father of his own view that the ob- 
noxious edict was purely a question of ecclesiastical 
rule. 

" God only knows," he writes, " how sorely I was beset. 
I, a young minister, as yet so slightly grounded in the 
knowledge of the Word, and entreated so earnestly to 
yield to the demonstrations of zeal and attachment which 
poured in from every quarter." In a letter addressed to 
one who had been the most vehement in his representation, 
he goes into the whole question, and shows him how im- 
possible he felt it, whatever might be the sacrifice, to prove 
unfaithful to his convictions. " I act according to my faith," 
he writes, "without judging or anathematising any one, 
but believing that it is the truth. My first concern as a 
minister of God should be to preach the truths in 
question." 

M. Cellerier, however, in no way slackened his efforts, 
and endeavoured at the same time to induce the As- 
sembly to put such an interpretation on the Eegulation as 
to make it evident that it pertained exclusively to dis- 
cipline. As soon as he thought he had succeeded in this 
endeavour, he paid a fresh visit to my father, adjuring 
him, in the name of the Saviour, and in the interests of 
Christian love, no longer to refuse his assent. Then he 
escorted him to the presence of a deputation of three pas- 



G8 



LIFE OF CMSAtt MALAN. 



tors who liad been commissioned to interpret to him the 
real meaning of the Regulation. 

My father assured them that he had either misunder- 
stood the document, or that it had been considerably modi- 
fied, so much so that he had no further hesitation, after 
the explanations which had been afforded him, to declare 
that he saw nothing in the way of his assent. 

It was under the influence of these feelings that he 
wrote to the Assembly on the 6th of May, close upon 
the time of the great religious festivals, a letter which 
breathes all the impulsive nature of his feelings. " I have 
sinned against your authority, venerable brethren," he 
says, " impelled by an unhappy narrow-mindedness, very 
different from the wisdom which cometh down from above. 
If you have wronged me in anything, the wrong has been 
so insignificant that I dare not recall it. Mine towards 
you has been so great that I may well desire that the past 
should be forgotten. I would fain assure you, brethren, 
in the presence of this happy change of feeling, that my 
future bearing shall be all that you could desire. My 
conduct shall be ruled by your authority, and if I can- 
not give my cordial approval to a Regulation which runs 
counter to my principles, I am prepared at all events to 
submit to it in the interests of peace. Yes, brethren, bro- 
therly love is more precious than the triumph of opinions, 
however lawful. I have felt this keenly. I am ready to 
prove it." 

My father was the first to acknowledge that, however 
much he might have felt all that this letter contained at 
the time he wrote it, it was nevertheless rather the gush- 
ing effusion of a young disciple, than the calm and judicious 



REMOVAL OF THE INHIBITION. 



GO 



utterance of a minister of God. He did not hesitate to 
detect in it sentiment rather than true charity, and to 
affirm that he displayed in it a greater eagerness to please 
those in power, and to pacify their minds, than to guard 
the interests of the truth. 

Meanwhile, this letter, in which we can only trace the 
impression of a somewhat impulsive record of generous 
and confiding feeling, was unsparingly quoted against him. 
It was taken as proof of a vacillating character, and even 
as a lapse from the honest maintenance of his principles. 
It was nothing more, however, as he acknowledged after- 
wards, than the product of a too hasty eagerness to yield 
to natural affections, which ought never to sway the judg- 
ment of a minister of God. Moreover, he always felt, in 
common with all his friends, that, thanks to his impetuo- 
sity, his confidence, as De Goltz assures us, had been 
taken unfair advantage of. At all events, those to whom 
he had written so unreservedly, soon gave him to under- 
stand that this was the case. 

Meanwhile, in consequence of his letter, he was re-ad- 
mitted at once to the pulpit of Geneva, nor did he hesitate 
to avail himself of the restored permission, preaching twice 
in the months of May and August. 

The extraordinary sensation occasioned at the time 
by these two sermons, which to-day would pass un- 
noticed except for their strength, clearness, and elo- 
quence of diction — the fact that men who meant to be in 
earnest pretended that they saw in them an attempt to 
introduce into the pulpit theological " subtleties" — all this 
shows how utterly the gospel message, however simply 
delivered, had become an unknown sound in Geneva. 



70 



LIFE OF CJSSAB MALAX. 



And what is still more surprising is the displeasure which 
these same sermons created in the Assembly itself. 
" After their deliver} 7 ," writes my father, " instead of that 
personal interest and Mndly feeling which so many of the 
pastors had shown me, I experienced nothing but coldness, 
reproaches, and false accusations." One cannot help ask- 
ing whether in this struggle the Assembly did not, 
after all, see a mere question of supremacy or competency. 
However that may be, a decree was issued forthwith, abso- 
lutely interdicting Malan from pulpit ministrations. A 
request to be heard in his own defence was denied him. 
Sentence was passed. They even refused to accept the 
offer he made them to take cognisance of his discourses 
before he preached them ; and a decision was arrived at 
on the 9th of August, that no application from him would 
even be admitted for debate unless it were supported by 
nine members of the Assembly. 

Kor did matters stop here. "While Malan spared no 
efforts to induce them to reconsider their decision, the 
academical u Compagnie," a mere branch of the " Com- 
pagnie des Pasteurs," addressed him in significant terms in 
reference to his college teaching. On the 24th of August, 
a fortnight after the last prohibition had been issued, he 
was called upon to undergo a cross-examination in the 
presence of the rector and moderator. He remained firm 
throughout, and in the month of September had to write to 
them that his trust was in the Lord Jesus, "Who would pro- 
vide for him and his (he had six children at the time), if 
his means of livelihood were taken from him. This leads 
us to inquire as to what was the new kind of teaching that 
appeared so reprehensible to the authorities. We find it 



NATURAL RELIGION. 



71 



detailed by himself in the letter to Mr T. Campbell, quoted 
above. Here is what he says upon the subject : — 

" When I was a Christian only in name, I was guided 
by the maxims of the world, and, like it, was in all things 
deceived. At that period I was a great admirer of pagan 
philosophy. The image of virtue, as enshrined by the men 
of this world, was the idol which I worshipped. Dignity, 
elevation of sentiment, sublimity of thought, energy, gener- 
osity, glory and honour, were my favourite expressions. The 
name of the Lord did not rest on my lips, and my heart 
was a stranger to the sanctifying influence of the Holy 
Spirit. That man appeared to me to have attained his 
highest destination, of whom it could be said, He is the 
greatest, the wisest, and most virtuous of his countrymen. I 
imagined that education had no other end than to form 
good citizens and great men; and it was my highest 
ambition to render my pupils more distinguished than 
those of any other school, and to hear them eulogised. 

" What man, impressed with the fear of God, does not 
tremble at beholding those great manufactories of worldly 
education — those workshops of reason and virtue, where, 
for views and feelings, the intelligence is reduced to its 
own imaginings — where the heart, to the exclusion of the 
Creator, is merely directed to creatures and creation. Yet 
this was the plan on which I conducted my school. Emu- 
lation, that is to say, pride — unbounded pride — was the 
moving principle. Disgrace and punishment were the 
portion of the idle, praise and reward were bestowed 
on the diligent. And it was at this period, my dear 
friend, that I was most regarded as an intelligent and 
valuable master ; that the friends of my scholars "united 



72 



LIFE OF CMSAR MA LAN. 



with my superiors in commending the rare talents I dis- 
played in my method with my scholars. 

" It pleased God, about this time, to enlighten and con- 
vert my soul. The children now appeared to me in quite 
another character. Hitherto I had only regarded them as 
members of human society, as men not arrived at man- 
hood. I henceforth considered them as immortal beings, 
and consequently as destined to be citizens of heaven, or 
heirs of wrath ; and this solemn consideration produced a 
complete revolution in my principles of instruction. 

"The innate rectitude of man, his equal bias to good 
and evil, the infallibility of his understanding in the pur- 
suit and discovery of truth, his capability of attaining 
infinite perfection, his moral ability for everything noble 
and virtuous, — in a word, the maxims of the wise, re- 
echoed and admired in every age and every school, were 
presented to my mind in their true colours. I learned 
from the Bible that God, Who knows what this wisdom is, 
has pronounced it folly. 

"You may well conceive, my much respected friend, 
that this entire revolution in my sentiments must have 
produced as great a change in the education and manage- 
ment of my pupils. I thought it my duty to give them 
the truth just as God has revealed it to man by His Son. 
The Holy Bible was introduced into my school. Each 
child had a copy of his own ; mine was always upon my 
table ; and this blessed book of heavenly wisdom be- 
came our treasury, from which we daily drew forth true 
knowledge. 

" What a change, in a short period, was thus effected in 
the economy of the school, by means of a few just prin- 



NOBLE ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS PUPILS. 73 



ciples inculcated in the minds of the children ! I particu- 
larly impressed upon them the necessity of having their 
hearts and understandings renewed by the Spirit of God, 
before they could acquire any real wisdom or solid virtue, 
— that is to say, any holiness. 

" So much friendly intercourse and uninterrupted confi- 
dence prevailed thereby between my scholars and myself, 
that we seemed rather to be friends and relations than 
master and pupils. I told them their faults, but I did not 
palliate my own, and I encouraged my young friends to 
admonish me with all confidence." 

He then proceeds to illustrate the thorough respectful, 
and, at the same time, candid way in which his boys one 
day took him at his word. I quote it as he related it 
in 1842 to some friends in Holland. 

" At that time I had the bad habit of saying, ' Mon Dieu, 
oui ! mon Dieu, non I ' and my pupils imitated it. Accord- 
ingly, I said to them one day, 'Let us make a bargain ; I'll 
take you up whenever you say that, and you '11 take me up 
whenever I do.' It was agreed, and I kept strict watch 
over my words, from a desire certainly not to commit the 
fault, but from a desire also, I must confess, not to be 
pulled up by my lads. But one day, after I had been 
speaking impulsively to one of them, suddenly the whole 
school rose up and remained standing in silence. 1 What 
is the matter, my boys?' I asked. Very, very respectfully 
the senior answered, ' You have just said, " Mon Dieu, oui," 
sir.' " My father thanked them, and, kneeling down with 
them, prayed to be forgiven, and delivered from that sin ; 
and, " thank God," he adds, " from that day to this I have 
never, I believe, been guilty of the same offence." 



74 



LIFE OF CJESAE MALAN. 



But to return to his letter to Mr Campbell. He con- 
tinues the subject of it by relating to his friend the 
struggles evinced by many of his pupils with the word of 
truth. "It assailed their pride/' he says, "but it was 
seldom that the love of their God and Saviour failed where 
the terrors of the law proved entirely ineffectual; and to 
that love I constantly appealed. I often prayed with 
them, but I never judged or denounced them. As a rule, 
I asserted my authority as little as possible, that I might 
make the authority of God and His Word their great 
standard. My school was an evangelical theocracy." 

Having thus unfolded thoroughly the new principles by 
which he was actuated, he proceeds to indicate the results 
which followed from putting them in practice. This was 
shown, he urges, in the startling difference between a boy 
brought up on a worldly system, with only the glory of 
the world to stimulate his ambitions in duty, and a 
Christian student comparing his present attainments with 
what his God and Saviour would have him to be. The 
latter estimate had growth not by a worldly standard, but 
by the perfect stature of the fulness that is in Christ, by 
which, though still a child, he must be tried. 

So that it is not the emulation which the world em- 
ploys and admires, that urges the pious disciple of Christ 
to press forward in the career of study and duty ; it is 
the good pleasure, of Ms Lord. He walks at liberty, he 
does more than strictly follow the narrow path of obedi- 
ence, he goes before it, because he loves Him Whom -he 
serves, and delights in His holy and blessed will. 

" During the two or three years that I adopted this plan 
with my scholars, I universally found that a child whom 



TONE OF THE SCHOOL. 



75 



the Lord lias enlightened is as capable of comprehending 
the eternal truths of the word of life, as any science which 
can be communicated to him ; and that the Word of God 
imparts an elevation, a dignity, an energy, which he can- 
not receive from any worldly motive." 

He caused to be written up in large characters on the 
walls of his school those words of Holy Scripture : " To 
whomsoever much is given, of them shall much be re- 
quired ; " and it was by that text that he roused the boys 
to diligence. Moreover, he tells us that attention paid by 
each of the pupils to his own proper work, and kindliest 
conduct towards the weaker and younger, had entirely 
superseded the old spirit of envy and rivalry, while, at the 
same time, the less gifted among them ran no further risk of 
being discouraged. After having adduced several striking 
illustrations of this fact, he goes on to tell his correspon- 
dent how one day the whole class came to him in a body 
without his having been in the smallest degree made 
aware of their intention, and restored to him certain silver 
medals which he had made for them some time back as 
rewards of conspicuous merit, beseeching him to take them 
back and sell them for the benefit of a collection for a 
benevolent purpose. 

I thought it best to give the above narrative in my 
father's own words, as not only placing the facts them- 
selves before us, but also in the particular light in which 
he regarded them. 

" All this time," so the letter resumes, " the book of 
God was not established noiselessly among the books of 
the world. Many voices were raised in protest against 
the ' innovation I ' " Not indeed that it must be supposed 



76 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



that my father, carried away by his ardour, had introduced 
into the school a svstem of religious teaching not contem- 
plated by statute. For such teaching was not merely part 
of the allotted work of each master, but my father was 
so far from exhibiting any rash zeal, that he had been the 
first to request the school authorities — the Compagnie 
Academique and his brother masters — to sanction the 
introduction of the present system, by which their teach- 
ing is intrusted to the specially appointed chaplain. 
What was objected to was not the fact of the religious 
instruction, but his " method " of imparting it. Xow, apart 
from the Christian spirit and earnestness which breathed 
through it, and which they could scarcely have made the 
subject of an official censure, his " method " differed in no 
other respect from the plan he had previously followed, 
except in the fact that he had introduced the Bible into 
the class, though not until he had first obtained the con- 
sent of the principal. 

He was not, however, left without occasional encourage- 
ment in his work. "Shortly after my conversion," he 
writes, " an aged and very worthy pastor, who visited the 
school from time to time, said to me once, on going away, 
' How thankful I am to see you working here like a true 
missionary!'" Then having assured him that he never 
forgot his work in his private prayers, he adds, ' From that 
day I felt I could never come to my class without first 
saying to myself, Whatever you are in your work here, 
be a true missionary !'" 

This circumstance shows him as already being what 
his entire after career proved him to be, not only a man of 
prayer, but also one who up to the very end was eminently 



DEPRIVED OF HIS MASTERSHIP. 



77 



a missionary. His true character appears also in the 
effect produced upon him by the opposition of which he 
found himself to be the object. "As for me," he con- 
tinues, " I recognised in all this that the work was not of 
the world, and I strengthened myself in the Lord." 

And much he needed that strength and that reliance. 
In spite of the continued success of his teaching, in spite 
of the increasing attachment felt towards him by his 
boys and their parents, the academical authorities, — after 
long discussion, in which, says a contemporary, (Schiche- 
dantz,) Malan exhibited the utmost moderation and frank- 
ness, — decided, without regard to the numberless representa- 
tions made in his favour, to deprive him of the post he had 
occupied for nine years. 

Setting aside mere idle pretexts, on which those who 
devised them did not venture to insist, the great reason 
which they alleged was that Malan had introduced the 
Bible into his class as a text-book, and that, thouoh he 
declared in the most explicit terms not to have even had 
the thought of opposing the catechism in teaching his 
pupils, he would not bind himself to observe in his religious 
instruction the precise terms of that manual." 

" This decree of the Compagnie Academique," writes M. 
Bost, a year afterwards, " required the sanction of the execu- 
tive council of the republic. Malan handed in an appeal. 
He proved in that remarkable document (Schichedantz 
calls it a model of temperate and modest argument,) that 
' for this rule to be binding it ought to be backed up either 
by some known law, or by some ecclesiastical decree in 
force, or by some established regulation, or else by some 
agreement previously entered into with himself, and bind- 



73 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAX. 



ing on his conscience.' After having demonstrated that 
none of these supports existed, he replies as follows to the 
objection, that such was the good pleasure of his lawful 
superiors : — 

<: 'But. Eight Honourable Sirs, leaving out of the question 
for a moment the theological point which lies at the root 
of the matter, and restricting mvself entirelv to a matter 
of right and fact, apart from the consideration that there is 
a God above, before Whose supreme authority in His direc- 
tion of my conduct in religious matters, all earthly rule 
must give way, and even while I admit that the school 
authorities on the inspection of studies have undoubted 
right to lay down at their pleasure this or that rule for 
imparting secular teaching — this argument by no means 
holds good with reference to spiritual instruction. Here 
they cease to possess arbitrary power ; and even though 
I acknowledged their good pleasure as an authority 
exacting my conscientious submission, how am I to 
ascertain it in sufficiently precise terms to rule my 
system by its stipulations ? 

" ' Surely it will never be maintained that such an 
authority in a matter of supreme importance resides in the 
doubtful suggestions, the uncertain and often contradictory 
opinions, of the scattered individual members of a public 
body. I am well assured indeed, for they have said as 
much in my hearing, that some of them deny the chvinity 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and original sin ; others, the effi- 
cacy of divine grace ; and the greater number of them, a 
free salvation. These are points about which I have heard 
them disputing amongst themselves ; so that, though they 
may constitute in themselves an authoritative corporation, 



REMONSTRANCE. 



79 



yet forasmuch as they can adduce no definite precise 
authentic official declaration of united sentiment, ought I 
to seek to please one of them at the expense of the other ; 
or renounce the collective convictions of my faith in favour 
of the vacillating theories of superiors, who rather allow 
men to guess at their opinions than receive them openly 
from their lips ? Had they set before me some known con- 
fession of faith, setting forth such and such dogmas proved 
by them, and given to me as a guide for my teaching — my 
adhesion being obtained to its contents — and had I after- 
wards departed from it, I should most assuredly have been 
greatly to blame. But as that never was the case, is not 
the case now, but, on the contrary, the Venerable As- 
sembly has expressly discarded all such confessions, have I 
not been, I respectfully submit, am I not, in the right, after 
the spirit of our glorious Reformation, in selecting for 
myself that confession which seemed to me to be the most 
scriptural — the confession of the Helvetian Churches, 
admitted and sworn to throughout our confederate Protes- 
tant cantons, and to which, in better days, Geneva herself 
had subscribed ? 

" ( Moreover, is it not rather inconsistent on their part 
thus to renounce all positive confessions, and at the same 
time to cashier one of their masters who, in consequence of 
this very act of theirs, finds himself absolutely free to teach 
according to the faith, simply because his method of deal- 
ing with Holy Scripture does not happen to accord with 
the views of some of his superiors, who, nevertheless, have 
established no rule in the matter ? Let the Compagnie 
state their mind clearly. Let them tell me authoritatively 
what they would have me teach, what are the dogmas they 



80 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



would repudiate, to what confession of faith they would tie 
me down. This they can do if they like ; but so long as 
they think it expedient to maintain their present discreet 
silence on this point, they cannot righteously reproach me 
with ignorance of it.' He then concludes by representing 
that, ' to allow the decree of the Compagnie to stand upon 
no other authority but the mere will and pleasure of that 
body, would be to. introduce arbitrary law, and set might 
and oppression over right and justice.' " 

Passing on to the objection that his teaching was 
beyond the comprehension of his pupils, he recalls the 
attention of the magistrates whom he is addressing to the 
instruction they themselves had received in their child- 
hood, and what prevailed, at the time he was speaking, in 
other Protestant countries. He communicates his own 
schoolroom experience, and pointing out the obvious differ- 
ence between the case of those children of 'orthodox 
families,' and those whose parents showed themselves in- 
different as far as the doctrine of the gospel was concerned, 
he appeals to them to decide whether the day had actually 
arrived in which those blessed and eternal verities could 
injure those whom they were intended to save. 

In a letter to one of the clergy, published at the same 
time, my father speaks still more plainly : — 

" I do assure you, were it only a question of my indi- 
vidual right, however certain I might be of the integrity of 
my motives, I would not hesitate a moment to acquiesce 
in their judgment. I would submit willingly to the charge 
of rashness, precipitation, and even culpability; and I 
would renounce utterly all attempts at self-defence, out of 
sole regard for their credit and reputation, If any steps I 



LETTER TO THE RECTOR. 



81 



may have taken, any words of mine, my mode of argument, 
any collateral inferences of mine, have wounded in any 
way either propriety or charity, it has been by no intention 
of mine ; and were this proved to me, I would hasten to 
repair my error. As touching this point, sir, I am ready 
to make all public allowance. For the form I gave to my 
protest, I alone am responsible ; any defects in it, put to 
my account exclusively ; hence it is for me alone to elimi- 
nate them. But as for the main question at issue, as for 
the principles and doctrine involved, it is not I alone who 
am concerned here ; it is not for me to give way in any- 
thing, as though these were mere personal matters. ' It is 
required of stewards, that a man be found faithful.' And 
what am I in my capacity of a Christian master but a 
steward of the truth of God committed to my keeping ? " 

My father foresaw, however, that the steps he had taken 
would be productive of no good result. A letter which he 
addressed to the rector of the academy shows the spirit in 
which he contemplated this possibility. 

" Let the venerable Campagnie Academique," he writes, 
" act as their wisdom and prudence dictate. Should they 
decide to deprive me of the post entrusted to me by 
another authority, and confirmed to me by themselves, I 
should hold their resolve to be the result of the sovereign 
and most gracious will of Him Who directs all the events 
of this world. Such a decree would deprive me of my 
only means of support for my family. I shall find myself 
without any apparent resources; but in perfect reliance, 
through divine grace, on my adorable Master, to Whose 
gracious keeping I commit all my affairs, I shall reverently 
and joyfully submit to all His wisdom may ordain." 

F 



82 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



Umbrage has been taken at the word " hero " applied to 
him by De Goltz. ~No one, however, reading these letters 
could help acknowledging that it was not without reason 
that the writer of them, in respect of the spirit that ani- 
mated him, was compared to Luther at Worms. Of course 
there was at stake only the rejection of an unknown school- 
master from a post of public instruction in a small city, 
but, at the same time, be it remembered, it is not the 
circumstances that invest it, which, in themselves, consti- 
tute the heroism of a believer's faith. 

Fifteen days after, his appeal had been lodged with the 
council of state, on the 4th of November. That body con- 
firmed the judgment of the Compagnie Academique, a 
decision which was at once intimated to my father on the 
6th of the same month, without any, even the most ordin- 
ary, marks of courtesy and consideration, which, under the 
circumstances, might have been exhibited. He was told 
on the Friday evening that his class would be undertaken 
by his successor on the Monday morning. He took leave of 
his boys by dictating to them " Eules for the Guidance of a 
Young Christian," and withdrew to a house which he had 
just purchased from his father in the " Pre l'Eveque." 

Feeling confident from the first that his appeal against 
the sentence of deprivation (most unjust as he always felt 
it to be) would certainly fail, while my mother herself, at 
this sorrowful crisis, failed to rise to his standard of 
unquestioning reliance, he never suffered himself to be 
cast down, but set to work at once to face the difficulties 
of the position to which he had been reduced. 

ISTor did He, in Whom he trusted, fail His faithful 
servant ? Let the reader mark the testimony of a well- 



PROVIDENTIAL AID. 



83 



known and much-esteemed servant of God upon this point. 
"Malan's enemies did all in their power to plunge that 
good man, with his wife and numerous family, into the 
deepest penury, into absolute destitution. At this critical 
moment, a few friends, chiefly English and Wiirtemburgers, 
stepped forward, and, partly by a loan, and partly by a 
respectful present, in which the givers felt themselves the 
most obliged, saved this oppressed and faithful servant 
of Christ from sinking into the extremity of distress. 
From that time, M. Malan has laboured to support him- 
self and his large family by taking pupils." 

I have only just been made cognisant of this circum- 
stance, but my father mentioned to me an incident of the 
same nature which occurred at the close of his tenure of 
his office, which I will proceed to relate. 

When he was on the point of purchasing the house in 
the Pre l'Eveque, which he had previously rented from my 
grandfather, he suddenly found himself, by the fault of a 
third person, unable to pay the money on the prescribed 
day. Meanwhile, it was absolutely essential that his father 
should have it. After a night of deep anxiety and fervent 
prayer, he betook himself to his schoolroom on the morning 
of the day in question. While he was giving the usual 
lessons, and was engaged in secret prayer to God to show 
him a way of escape from his distress, he saw a stranger at 
the class-room door, who made him a sign to come out. 
The visitor proved to be an Englishman who happened to 
be passing through Geneva ; and though he was not per- 
sonally acquainted with my father, took the greatest inte- 
rest in all that had befallen him. He then went on to tell 
him that he had heard of the embarrassment in which he 



84 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



was placed through no fault of his, and begged to he 
allowed to advance the necessary money. My father re- 
ceived it as though it had come from God Himself. He 
was soon enabled to repay it, and the kindly assistance laid 
the foundation of a lasting friendship. 

This circumstance, in itself so purely ordinary, did not 
fail to produce a deep impression on my father's mind. 
Even in his old age he loved to recall it, as a proof of the 
tender care of his heavenly Father. 

From that time his pupils, to whom Dr Pye Smith re- 
fers, and the proceeds of his literary works, proved his 
chief means of subsistence. As we shall yet have occasion 
to see, he never, except in the isolated instances we have 
just recorded, received any regular assistance of any kind 
whatever. At the commencement, especially, he had nearly 
fourteen boarders in his house, chiefly English. At first 
young men, afterwards young ladies. 

Thenceforth the sole remaining link attaching him to 
his country was his position as minister of the gospel in 
the Church of Geneva, an office the functions of which he 
was forbidden to discharge, though its official status re- 
mained to him. Every one urged him to leave a place 
where, as a minister, his hands were tied. He himself was 
unable to decide upon taking the step. First, undoubt- 
edly, because he was unwilling to withdraw in the pre- 
sence of a measure, as he thought, illegal, and which must, 
he concluded, die a natural death in the course of time — of 
a decision which he was compelled to regard as proceeding 
from the direction of the National Church being for a while 
in the hands of a mere section which, looking merely at its 
heterodoxy, could not be uppermost long. This was not, 



« CAST DOWN, BUT NOT DESTROYED. 



85 



however, the only motive which induced him to brave the 
opposition of the national clergy and the excesses of a 
mob, only too ready to insult a man marked out for their 
attacks by his clerical superiors. A higher, deeper feeling 
actuated his conduct : the simple, earnest desire to pro- 
claim to his fellow-citizens that message of salvation which 
had brought such blessedness to himself; to testify the 
faith of Christ in the midst of his own people, whom, the 
more thoroughly he believed them to be the victims of 
deadly error, the more ardently he loved ; while he longed 
with his whole soul to carry out his ordination vow in 
seeking to evangelise them.* 

Having issued a publication entitled, " Documents rela- 
tive to the Deposition of the minister Malan from his Mas- 
tership," he set himself to work to compass this great end. 
Eemitting no effort, either by letter or by any other means, 

* A letter written by my father to Dr Mason, dated Havre, April the 
2d, 1819, shows us, in all their fervency, the sentiments which then ani- 
mated him. — (Memoirs of Dr Mason, p. 507.) " My good and respected 
friend, — What events in Geneva since your departure ! How mightily 
does the Lord work ! What vigorous and sustained wrestling ! Heresy 
must tremble ! The idol has feet of clay ; we will strike them, and it will 
crumble, to the shame of those who have adored it. Already it has received 
a mortal blow. . . . There is a holy people at Geneva. We have only a 
little strength, but He has permitted us to confess His name, and to keep 
the word of His patience. . . . Oh, how excellent, how sweet, and dear to 
my heart is the reproach of Christ with which I have been covered ! What 
faithfulness, what tenderness in our kind Saviour ! I remember to have 
seen your tears flow in speaking of that best of masters. At that time I 
did not understand these sentiments as I do now. I had not yet learned in 
the happy school of tribulation, that it is good to he afflicted. Let us, dear 
doctor, go on boldly and sincerely. See ! life is so short, so little a thing ! It 
will soon be ended. We shall then see Christ. Yes, we ourselves shall see 
Him Whom we love and follow without seeing. Oh, what servant could be 
so unworthy, so obstinate, as to hesitate and calculate with himself ! No, 
no, my brother, we will not do it." 



86 



LIFE OF CAESAB MALAN. 



to induce the Compagnie to reconsider their steps — efforts 
which, however, were wholly unnoticed — he preached as 
often as he possibly could at Ferney, and was the first 
to earn the title Momier, applied to him in the month of 
October in that year, an epithet which has remained as a 
popular byword awarded to any one whose piety, or even 
moral strictness only, may have condemned, by painful 
contrast, surrounding laxity. In the month of September 
he commenced devotional meetings in his house, and there, 
too, he conducted his Sunday-school. Soon afterwards he 
was compelled to adjourn for want of room to a small 
house which he had had constructed in his garden. 

His meetings were such as are now frequent in every 
part of Geneva. " Eeading and meditation over the word," 
says Schichedantz, (to whose mind they recalled the " Col- 
legia pretatis" of Spener,) " occupied the principal time of 
those assembled ; a psalm was then sung, followed by an 
extempore prayer from some one of those present, or by 
one borrowed from the collections of Osterwald or Dodd- 
ridge." " These little meetings," says my father, " differed 
in nothing from the ordinary devotion in numerous fami- 
lies." By degrees, for order's sake, he conducted them 
entirely himself. They were held frequently during the 
week, in the morning or evening ; and on the Sunday at 
an hour in no way interfering with the time of public wor- 
ship at the various churches. About one hundred and fifty 
people came in the evening, in the morning generally fifty. 

As the population was greatly excited by the reports 
circulated with reference to these evening meetings, Malan 
published a little tract entitled " Come and See," in which 
he reasserted his attachment to the National Church. At 



EN CO URA GEMENTS. 



87 



this time lie had in no way felt himself compelled to 
secede. He had not attached himself to "the little 
Church/' and communicated regularly with his family in 
the public temples. 

All this time he was receiving continual encourage- 
ment, not only from old friends, but from strangers also. 
Gaussen writes to him, in reference to his published " Docu- 
ments," &c, " I bless God for the correspondence you 
have just issued. I think your doing so, right and service- 
able — a religious duty, and an absolute necessity." Charles 
Eien, also one of his fellow- students, wrote a letter to him 
full of ardour and piety. I only wish I could quote it 
entire. His triumphant death at the outset of his de- 
voted ministry will never be forgotten by those who 
watched with fondest interest over the early days of this 
awakening. I must confine myself, however, to the con- 
cluding paragraph, which gives a clue to the kind of atmos- 
phere in which Malan and his friends lived. 

It was dated from Tredericia, January 29, 1819, and 
is addressed to Mr Malan, a faithful minister of Jesus 
Christ. Its contents glow with holy enthusiasm, and 
seem to be as it were lighted up with a realised view of 
heavenly glory. 

" Vitam dat Christus ! Such has been the thought in 
my mind a thousand times in recurring to you and your 
history, my dear excellent brother ; compassionating from 
the bottom of my heart your troubles and anxieties, and 
blessing God for enabling you to stand firm by the cause 
of Christ. What a blessed thing it is, dear brother, to be 
enabled to do anything in the service of such a Master ! 
To Him I render continual thanks for all that He has 



88 



LIFE OF CjFSAB MALAN. 



done in strengthening His servant to revive the pnre 
teaching of His word in our Sion. What He has done in 
your case is evident : freeing you from a thousand 
entanglements of earth to employ you more thoroughly in 
His work. Courage, brother ! let us fight the good fight ! 
Tell me all about your work, my dear friend ; what re- 
sults have followed from your meetings ; how your 
Sunday-school is prospering." After detailing the success 
which had attended on his adoption of " Haldane's plan " — 
the plan, that is, of using Scripture itself as a universal 
commentary, and making those present at Scripture- 
readings turn up the required passages — he goes on to 
speak of a new orthodox theological society, about which 
Gauss en had just been writing to him : — 

"With the utmost heartiness I give you the hand of 
fellowship. In associations, where unity can only be 
maintained by dissimulating opinions, the word is in- 
evitably silenced without any of its fruit being exhibited. 
.... You have done well in publishing your correspon- 
dence with the authorities. Truth must shine out even- 
tually in all its glory. To declare war against sin and 
unbelief — to show the utmost tenderness, meanwhile, to 
sinners and unbelievers — this is our task. Let us seek to 
conquer our enemies rather by our example than by our 
words. Nor let us cease to join in earnest prayer for their 
conversion to God." 

I would add here a few extracts from a letter addressed 
at that time to my father by the Eev. T. Fry, rector of 
Emberton, who had just taken up his defence in England, 
(in his Heresise Mastix) : — 

" October 22, 1821. — I am deeply interested in what the 



LOUD RODEN. 



80 



Lord is doing, by you. It would be presumptuous in me 
to offer you advice in the perilous path you are treading. 
It will, however, strengthen and comfort your hands (for 
it would comfort an apostle) to know that very many are 
offering prayers in your behalf, that they sympathise in 
your sufferings, and are rejoicing in your faith, your zeal, 
and your love. There is proof that these prayers have been 
heard, for you breathe the mind of Christ, and we have 
read your letters with tears of thankfulness. I cannot 
form a just idea of your difficulties, and yet I can conceive 
you will find new trials await you, and it will be well you 
should be prepared to meet them. A Eeformer is hated of 
Satan above all men. The world was" for a time the great 
enemy of Calvin and Luther ; but, as his malice ceased, 
the tares sprung up amongst the wheat, and so it will pro- 
bably be* with you. There will be things to grieve you 
amongst yourselves, and sorer trials than the opposition of 
ignorant men. I take it for granted you will be exercised 
in this way, and that you will find the words true, * A 
man's foes are often those of his own household.' Every 
covenant mercy be yours ! May you long live blessed 
and blessing, having many seals to your ministry, and 
many souls for your exceeding great reward !" 

It was at that time, too, that my father received a letter 
from a British nobleman, the Earl of Koden, then a perfect 
stranger to him, but who became afterwards his intimate 
friend. " Day after day, brother, in family worship and in 
private prayer, I offer my humble but earnest intercession 
for you and your work." Eive and twenty years after- 
wards my father delighted to record the joy and thanks- 
giving with which he had learnt that the children of God 



90 



LIFE OF C^SAB MALAK 



were being stirred up to pray for him. About the same 
time a German princess, the Duchess Henrietta of Wtir- 
temberg, who happened to be staying at Geneva with her 
daughters, attended his meetings regularly, her daughters 
accompanying her. These ladies, more than one of whom 
eventually shared a throne, retained a most lively recollec- 
tion of my father's teaching. One of them, the Arch- 
duchess Mary, Palatine of Hungary, a lady quoted for the 
strength and superiority of her mind, in a letter to my 
father, dated 1843, speaks of "this Malan whose explanation 
of the loth of John, given to us by him in June 1819, will 
never be forgotten by me." In another letter she thanks 
him again " for the ineffaceable words which she had heard 
from his lips at Geneva in 1819, and which still resounded 
in her soul." While their mother, who, at the close of her 
long life — a life full of blessing and delight to all who 
knew her — spoke of him to me as " her father in the faith," 
and entrusted to the man who had been ostracised by the 
Genevan clergy the religious instruction of two young 
princes of her family. 

It was at the commencement of the year 1819, on his 
return from a trip to England, where he had been visiting 
an American who was anxious to send his sons to him, 
that he agreed, after much pressing on the part of those 
who had been in the habit of attending regularly on his 
ministrations, to allow himself to be regarded thenceforth 
as their pastor. This, of course, was a first step towards 
secession, though he was not aware of it, and his oppo- 
nents were not slow in convincing him that they so 
regarded it. At the same time, however, he drew nearer 
in the spirit to M. Enipeyta*. This appears not only from 



APPEAL FOR A CHURCH. 



91 



certain letters which passed "between him and my mother, 
but also in the application itself, now about to be referred 
to ; and also, a year later, in his " Declaration of Fidelity 
to the Church of Geneva," in which he publicly espoused 
the rights of the Church, called at that time " The Church 
of the Bourg de Four." 

Meanwhile, seeing that the number of his hearers was 
steadily on the increase, he applied to the Council of 
State for permission to use one of the town churches. 
After having stated how, under the influence of the 
awakening which had been spreading for the last ten 
years, certain Christians had been compelled, for con- 
science sake, to separate from the National Church, 
" There are others," he added — " I speak of ourselves, # 
right hon. sirs — who have felt it a duty to remain, and pro- 
test from within the bosom of the Church, against the 
errors from which she is suffering." He then goes on to 
mention the violent opposition of which they had been, 
and still were, the objects, and defends his brethren and 
himself from the charge of enthusiasm, fanaticism, or am- 
bition. He recalls to the minds of those whom he is 
addressing the fact that their doctrines were such as their 
fathers professed, and were the same as those held by all 
the Eeformed Churches. " Hence," he adds, " right hon. 
sirs, we Genevan Calvinists look upon ourselves as the 
persecuted, but not the less faithful, Genevan Church, 
despised by the world, but graciously owned of God." 
Then, in the name of their rights and privileges as citizens, 
he asks the authorities to restore them that of which they 
had been unjustly deprived — liberty to exercise their 
Christian faith, the faith of oM time — to extend to those 



92 



LIFE OF CASSAB MALAN. 



who had remained true to that faith the benefits of the 
glorious reformation enjoyed by their brethren, whether 
Lutherans, German Calvinists, or Anglicans, by conceding 
to them the use of a church in the city. 

The appeal wound up as follows : — 

" Fathers of our country ! we ask no strange favour, 
but an ancient right at your hands ; we ask it reverently of 
our natural protectors. We ask no mere temporal, no 
needless boon — we seek the greatest blessing man can 
desire, and we implore you to listen to our prayer. We 
crave but free leave to worship publicly our common 
Lord and Saviour. Not only as citizens and your servants, 
but as the redeemed of Christ we address you, in His 
name. Our prayer respects not merely the interests of 
the moment. It is an eternal need that we ask you to 
consider. We urge our request in the midst of no worldly 
surroundings. We bear it and you to the throne of the 
Son of man, and it is there, as ministers of God, that we 
present you our petition." 

The petition having been read in council on the 28th 
Dec. 1819, it was ruled that there was no occasion for 
deliberation. 

My father now resolved to build a chapel in his garden. 
He proceeded to do it in the year 1820, after having ob- 
tained the sanction of the magistrates, on the understand- 
ing " that he had no intention of disturbing the peace of 
the state." 

Thus he took up a definite position as an independent 
minister. And here it will be as well to terminate all 
reference to, or exposure of, his official relation with the 
Established Church, though his actual secession did not 



RUPTURE WITH THE NATIONAL CHURCH 93 



occur till 1823. Of this final rupture I will first give a 
concise history, and then express an individual opinion on 
the merits of the whole question. 

At the time he "built his chapel he looked upon it in no 
other light than as a house of prayer, where he might have 
liberty to preach the gospel to his fellow-citizens. This 
position of mere preacher, however, he was soon compelled 
to abandon. " In spite of the opposition which he had 
to encounter," says De Goltz, " his influence, and the 
number of those who attended his meetings, increased 
rapidly," till, by degrees, as we have seen, he allowed him- 
self to be regarded as a pastor, though declining to 
administer the sacraments in his exceptional position. He 
had prepared some young people for the communion with- 
out the sanction of their respective ministers ; he had 
encouraged certain Eomanists who had been converted to 
the Protestant faith to attend the Lord's Supper, without 
requiring from them the abjuration of their former creed, 
in such cases strictly required by the Church of Geneva. 
That Church, indeed, having long lost sight of religious 
freedom, the essential characteristic of an evangelical 
ministry, and altogether confounding that ministry with 
the particular office of those appointed to exercise its func- 
tions within her pale, regarded such a course of proceed- 
ing not only as a breach of good order, but as a deliberate 
outrage on the rights and prerogatives of her clergy. It 
is notorious that the greater the vagueness of assumed 
rights, the greater the jealousy with which such rights are 
guarded. 

As far as Malan was concerned, he was by no means con- 
scious of having given occasion for their sentiments. Be- 



94 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAK 



garding his position simply from a spiritual point of view, 
he felt that his ministry was no charge for which he was 
accountable to those who had forbidden him all exercise 
of the pastoral calling, but a holy trust confided to him 
directly by God Himself. Its duties appeared to him 
to involve obligations which he was called upon to fulfil 
in virtue of an office, not indeed bestowed, but merely 
recognised by his ordination in the Church of Geneva. 

Then it was that the Assembly, without heeding a dis- 
tinction with which, as Protestant teachers, they ought to 
have been familiar, and confining themselves rigorously to 
their position of purely administrative authority, wound up 
their attacks by decreeing his " suspension " from his eccle- 
siastical functions — the consistory proposing to the Council 
of State, in April 1823, a resolution to that effect. That 
civil body, however, putting the interests of general good 
order above those of ecclesiastical rights, called upon the 
appellants to make every effort to bring about a peaceable 
arrangement of the whole controversy. 

Meanwhile, the subject of their negotiations was occupied 
entirely with his pastoral and missionary work. Having 
had no communication with the higher powers for the last 
five or six years, he was, to quote his own words, "ex- 
tremely surprised at the sudden summons to appear in his 
own behalf before the consistory." 

He complied with that command, first in April, and sub- 
sequently in July, in the same year. At his examination, 
and afterwards by letter, he endeavoured to explain to the 
consistory that it was not till he had found that all his 
communications in connection with his exclusion from the 
national pulpit (addressed by him both to the clerical 



NO "SECTARY. 



95 



authorities and also to the magistrates) were passed over 
in silence, that he decided first on holding devotional 
meetings in his house, and subsequently in a house of prayer 
built in his garden, where he took God to witness he had 
preached no doctrine contrary to those held by the Church 
of Geneva from its earliest date. " I never was a sectary," 
he exclaimed, "God knows, as will be seen in that day 
when the secrets of all hearts will be disclosed. I have 
never been a schismatic ; no schismatic ever sought, and 
that repeatedly, to be heard, to be judged, to be criticised. 
It has been mine to guard the faith, and the ' good thing ' 
of Scripture as it was committed to me. This much I have 
sought to do, after the strength which God vouchsafed me. 

"Beyond all doubt, sirs, in taking this course I have 
suffered much. It has been with no little sorrow that I 
have found myself at war with those whom I have been 
accustomed to regard as fathers and brethren, among whom 
it would have been an easier and pleasanter task to have 
exercised my ministry quietly, than to enter upon a cruelly 
isolated path of opposition, with the feeling that I was 
drawing down upon myself their grave displeasure. Don't 
suppose for a moment, sirs, that in all this six years' con- 
flict I could forget, or have ever forgotten, that I have been 
brought up in your midst, and that I have received from 
you many and many a proof of love and esteem. I cherish 
the consciousness of this in my inmost soul ; and it is the 
grateful emotion, begotten of this consciousness, which has 
made it so hard a task to me to acquit myself of the higher 
duty of fidelity to my Lord and Master, and in so doing to 
appear as the opponent of your authority, incurring the 
penalty of your decided disapproval." 



96 



LIFE OF CJSSAB MALAN. 



Having read this defence, the consistory exacting simply 
a statement of his future intentions, to be explicitly de- 
livered on certain heads submitted to him, touching the 
requirements of ecclesiastical discipline ; and Malan declin- 
ing to make any specific promise, except with the reserva- 
tion, "According to the Lord;" this reservation was 
looked upon as a positive refusal, and sentence of absolute 
suspension was accordingly pronounced. 

Once more he had to present himself to hear the judg- 
ment given, together with a confirmatory decree from the 
Council of State. This was to the effect, that in conse- 
quence of his numerous acts of insubordination, he was 
deprived of his ecclesiastical status in the canton of Geneva. 
As soon as the Moderator had concluded his address, my 
father rose, bowed to the assembly, and withdrew without 
uttering a single word. He was not to leave that hall, 
however, for the last time, without a signal proof of the 
loving-kindness of his God. In a letter written on the fol- 
lowing day to a friend, he says : — 

"My joy, since yesterday, has been very great. That 
day was the happiest in my life. I had wished to be 
enabled to bear witness for the truth, and my prayer was 
abundantly answered." Having detailed the events of that 
memorable episode in his life, he goes on to say, " As I was 
leaving the hall, and just as I reached the entrance, a 
pastor left his place and came up to me in the presence of 
the entire assembly. It was the worthy Gaussen. He 
seized me warmly by the hand, and detained me for a 
moment before them all. May God remember him, and 
deal graciously by him, in the hour of his need ! " 

Every one knows how that prayer was answered, when, 



LETTER TO THE COUNCIL OF STATE. 97 



eight years afterwards, Gaussen himself was subjected to 
the same ordeal. 

" Now I can truly say I have finished the work which 
was given me to do. G-od only knows His own purposes, 
and shows Himself glorious in His Church." 

It may be as well to add the concluding paragraphs of 
his published account of the whole affair. It was issued 
in the year 1823:— 

"In November 1818 I was reported to the Council of 
State by the clerical body as contumacious and disorderly, 
and the magistrates consequently deposed me from my 
collegiate post. 

H In July 1823 I was further accused on a similar charge, 
by the same, or nearly the same, men; and the secular 
powers deprived me of my ecclesiastical functions. 

" The eternal God, Whom I fear, and Whom I worship 
in all sincerity of heart, is my witness, that in 1818 I was 
guilty of no act of insubordination, except it were that 
I could not conform to the opinions of those whose views 
of the gospel contradicted mine, and that I could not reply 
to their interrogations otherwise than as my conscience 
dictated in the presence of the Lord. 

" As a minister of Jesus Christ, I can safely and 
solemnly say that in the day of His appearing He will not 
pronounce me ' contumacious.' And if man has thus 
stigmatised me, has condemned me on this pretext, his 
judgment will not accord with the judgment of my Lord 
and Master." 

On the 14th of August my father addressed the follow- 
ing letter to the Council of State : — 

" Illustrious aud Eight Honourable Sirs,— The Venerable 

G 



98 



LIFE OF CJESAFx, MALAK 



Consistory of the National Protestant Church has informed 
me of the decree of suspension which you have pro- 
nounced. 

"My principles enjoin upon me submission to your 
authority, and the recognition of the least of your com- 
mands 'according to the Lord.' Hence in the delicate 
position in which I now find myself, and in order the 
better to exhibit the obedience which I owe you as a citizen, 
and to show myself at the same time a faithful servant 
of God, Who has entrusted me with the ministry of the 
gospel, I am compelled to follow a new course — a course 
which I had hoped I never should have been called upon 
to adopt, namely, to retire both in my ministerial and 
private capacity from the Protestant Church of our Canton 
as at present constituted. 

" I have therefore to request, with all deference and 
civil obedience, that you will not regard me henceforth as 
bound by your authority in spiritual matters, nor as being 
any longer a member of the National Church. 

" Most unwillingly do I abandon the Church of my 
fathers. I have declared, in a published document, my 
continued loyalty to the ancient Church of Geneva, whose 
tenets still live in our ecclesiastical formularies, and 
whose existence, as established and protected by our 
ancestors, has been protracted through two hundred years. 
But I dare not — the Word of God and my conscience 
alike forbidding it — acknowledge, for a moment, any com- 
mand which interferes with the requirements laid upon 
me by the gospel of Christ to preach the word, and to 
exercise my ministry. 

" So I have only to beg of you, sirs, to accord, both to 



GRANTED TOLERATION. 



99 



myself as a minister, and to those of my fellow-citizens 
who may elect to worship God as I would seek to wor- 
ship Him, full right to exercise our religion, together with 
the same toleration, the same legal protection, which the 
Anglicans, Moravians, the Independents at the Bourg de 
Tour, and the Jewish community, receive at your hands. 

" May the God of heaven bless both our State and our 
rulers ! — Your most obedient servant, for the sake of the 
Lord Jesus, C^sar Malan, Minister of God." 

This application (in which, in order to maintain his 
character as a minister, as well as the possibility of dis- 
charging the ministerial duties, my father was thus con- 
strained to withdraw from the Church in which he was 
born) was not rejected by the Council of the State. His 
petition was granted by the authorities " so long as their 
doing so in no way interfered with public order." 

But while the civil power, however unwilling it might 
be to arrest the persecution with which he had been 
hunted down, still showed itself ready to protect individual 
rights and privileges, the ecclesiastical rulers, on the other 
hand, did not hesitate to withhold all recognition of that 
pastoral capacity so fully admitted by the Council of 
State. 

Tor no sooner had Malan's letter to the latter been com- 
municated to the " Compagnie des Pasteurs" than, not 
contenting themselves with pronouncing him to be re- 
moved from the clergy list — the natural result, the object, 
indeed, of the step he had been compelled to take — they 
exceeded altogether their administrative power, so con- 
stantly alleged in the course of the dispute, with the view 
of ignoring the theological aspect of the question, and 



LoPC. 



100 LIFE OF CAE SAB MALAN. 



assumed the character of official representatives of the 
Catholic Church of Christ. By virtue of that usurped 
authority they declared him, on the 18th of Sept. 1823, to 
have "fallen from his ecclesiastical ministry," thus not 
merely depriving him of his position in the Church of 
Geneva — a position which he himself had abandoned, but 
denying him all right or title to regard himself as a 
minister of the gospel, a denial constantly asserted in a 
practical form by ignoring his existence in that capacity. 
In virtue of that decree my father was constantly refused 
the acknowledgment of his ecclestiastical character at the 
hands of the Geneves e civil authorities, until the time 
when, in consequence of a subsequent political revolution, 
many years later, the influence of the clergy had ceased to 
predominate in the official departments of government. 

To this, however, my father could never submit. He 
neither admitted its justice, nor failed to assert against it 
his personal right, conveyed through his ordination, to his 
office. This right he declared himself unable to forfeit, 
the very constitution of the Church itself forbidding him 
to do so, except by a voluntary act on his part, or a 
regular legal proceeding furnished with sufficient evidence 
to justify its course. Admitting that the ecclesiastical 
rulers had full right to forbid his exercising his ministry, 
he altogether denied that they had the power to deprive 
him, by a mere arbitrary decree, of functions, in his eyes 
not only sacred but absolutely indelible, and with which, 
by his ordination in the Church of Geneva, he had been 
virtually invested in the eyes of the whole evangelical 
Church. From the moment that this last step was taken 
against him (to him the most painful of all) he never 



DENIED HIS MINISTERIAL STATUS. 



101 



ceased to protest against its utter illegality, and to look for 
its retractation. In his eyes it was not merely unauthor- 
ised, but amounted to a personal libel, inasmuch as, accord- 
ing to the constitution of the Church which had dealt 
thus with him, such a sentence could only be passed on 
one convicted either of immorality or heresy ; nor even 
then, except after a formal trial which, in spite of all his 
entreaties, had never been granted him. 

If Protestant clergymen have thus the right of pronoun- 
cing administratively, not only upon the exercise, but upon 
the very existence of that ministry which their " ordina- 
tion " can only recognise and declare, it certainly does not 
clearly appear what, on that particular point, may be the 
difference between the authority of the clergy, which 
is essentially delegated, and the absolute powers of the 
Romish, priests. At all events the latter could only act 
thus in virtue of clearly established laws, and in cases 
most carefully and strictly defined. 

It will appear by and by that, towards the close of his 
life, he had reason to believe that this decree would at 
length be rescinded, though, from circumstances that will 
be stated in their order, his expectations were never 
realised. 

In writing thus, I ask myself whether I ought not to 
maintain pretentions, whose justice I also fully admit, or 
whether, taking a view of the question he never was able 
to take, I should estimate such a step at its true 
worth, and hold it to be utterly unimportant. Certainly 
when we see how God Himself has testified to the ministry 
of His servant, such a question cannot even be raised. At 
all events, the course pursued in the face of such a life as 



102 



LIFE OF C^SAR MALAN. 



his could only compromise those who met his reiterated 
appeals with silent contempt, and those, too, who, after the 
turbulence of the excitement had subsided, failed still to 
take a right view of the merits of the question. 

Of course, it might be urged that the Genevan Church 
could not continue to be held responsible for the deeds of 
fifty years back. Eeserving to myself the right, when I 
come to that portion of my narrative, of defining the limits 
and extent within which that objection may be held valid, 
I confine myself at present to specifying the action of the 
civil powers in relation to the unwarrantable proceedings 
of the ecclesiastical authorities. 

The better to do this, let me refer to a letter from my 
father to the first syndic magistrate, dated July 1824, in 
which he protests against the qualification given to him of 
schoolmaster, on the electors' rolls of that year, and, that 
protestation being left unnoticed, makes a further appeal 
to be at least exempted by authority from military service. 
In October 1825 he forwarded a fresh application to the 
same quarter for due recognition as a minister of the gospel, 
inclosing, at the same time, a report of the official acts by 
which the Secession Church of Scotland had incorporated 
him among their clergy.* The reply was a distinct refusal, 
to which was appended the declaration " that he wasn't 
even tolerated, that he was only endured." To which he 
rejoined that he asked for no favour, but simply to be dealt 
with constitutionally by the ecclesiastical laws. 

Of course, it is not by this solitary occurrence that his 

* His original intention, indeed, had been to unite with the Scotch 
(Presbyterian) Establishment, but it could not have been done without his 
having first passed through the prescribed four years of study in a Scotch 
college. 



RELATIONS WITH THE CIVIL POWERS. 103 



treatment at the hands of the civil power mnst be esti- 
mated. Though, for a long period, the circumstance of 
their ignoring his ecclesiastical status excluded him, as a 
matter of course, from participation in the civil privileges 
and duties of a country like ours, (for example, in elec- 
tions, at which he had always been present from the time 
when he was first entered as a minister on the qualification 
roll), still, from the very outset, it must in justice be 
admitted that their relations generally towards each other 
were very satisfactory. As an instance of this, I may 
mention that on one occasion, during some popular disturb- 
ance in 1825, he promptly complied with a request from 
the lieutenant of police, who asked him as a favour to 
suspend his evening meetings for a short time. Should 
the reply of the first syndic, quoted above, appear some- 
what offensive, it must be remembered that the Geneva of 
that time was quite different from the Geneva of the pre- 
sent day. Although its magistrates, who were then taken 
out of the real aristocracy of its population, were known 
and quoted in neighbouring countries for the elevation of 
their mind and their zeal for progress, the laws were still 
those of the ancient republic, and by the letter of their 
requirements, the mere charge of discussing doctrines con- 
stituted of itself a civil offence ; so that, if the magistrates 
of that day did not press the statute to its utmost, it was 
because, in the matter of toleration, they were in advance 
of the ordinances of the State. It is notorious that, when 
on their restoration to powder by the popular vote in 1847, 
those who had had the chief hand in bringing about their 
reinstatement recast the old statutes, so as to give the 
widest scope for liberty of opinion, they did but legalise a 



104 



LIFE OF CJESAE MALAN. 



state of things which the clear-sightedness of previous 
rulers had already virtually anticipated. 

Yet, in spite of all this — owing to the strong union 
which existed between the secular and ecclesiastical 
authorities — the former, so far from interfering in Malan's 
case, sanctioned the proceedings against him, by giving 
a legal character to the acts of the clergy, and then per- 
petuating their consequences to my father and his family. 

And thus it is easy for us, without following the litiga- 
tion any further, to form a general opinion on the entire 
merits of the question. 

In arriving at such a judgment, however, everything 
depends on the point of view from which the matter in 
dispute is regarded. In this case there are clearly but 
two ways of looking at it. Either we must estimate the 
entire history as illustrating a phase in what is commonly 
called " national religious life," and so come to treat it 
as a natural and necessary development of social life ; or 
else, passing by this theory, we must see, apart from this, 
and far above it, a higher state, an individual religious 
life, resulting in the believer from a full apprehension of 
the special facts which are testified in the gospel. 

Undoubtedly those who draw no distinction, such as 
immeasurably exists between the holiness to which the 
Christian is " called," and human virtue, cannot under- 
stand what Jesus Christ Himself taught about the neces- 
sity of a new birth, but as a metaphor, intended to 
illustrate more strikingly the old truth of a moral progress 
in itself natural and everywhere insisted on. Such men 
will always look upon Christianity as being nothing but 



HIS TREATMENT— JUST OR UNJUST? 105 



one of the natural phases of the natural development of 
man on earth. Tor them, the name of Christian will 
simply be a conventional designation of the inhabitants of 
certain countries on the globe at a certain period of their 
history. Such persons, of course, will only see, in the 
events we have traced out, one of these " religious quarrels," 
of no importance in itself, incapable of making any general 
impression, the history of which it would be unwise to 
present to people happily ignorant of its very existence. 

And yet, even from this point of view, my father's bio- 
grapher has this to consider — whether he should raise the 
question as to the justifiableness or unjustifiableness of the 
proceedings from which Malan suffered, or whether, pass- 
ing that matter by, he may content himself with drawing 
the picture of an honoured and respected old age, in the 
lustre of whose private virtues these earlier occurrences 
might be regarded as eclipsed. 

And on this point the true guide to a decision is to be 
found in an answer to these two questions : First, Did the 
academical and ecclesiastical rulers act within the limits of 
their authority from the time of their deposition of Malan 
from his collegiate post, or in the adoption of these hostile 
measures, which compelled his withdrawal from the Estab- 
lishment ? and, secondly, admitting that their proceedings 
were justifiable, did they, in the conduct of them, exhibit 
such skill and judgment as were necessary, even with re- 
gard to the external interests of the Church, so continually 
alleged as their sole consideration ? 

It would be going out of our way here to meet these 
two questions with a formal reply. That has been fur- 



106 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



nished elsewhere. Enough, for us to express our conviction 
that public opinion in Geneva will be on our side, when 
we affirm, in view of the occurrences, that, as a matter 
of fact, Malan was most unjustly treated by the clergy of 
Geneva ; and that the clergy themselves, looking merely at 
the considerations which they put forward, exhibited a 
singular want of tact and judgment. 

As a Protestant clergy, there was nothing they should 
more scrupulously have guarded against than the bare 
suspicion that they were laying claim to absolute authority, 
without check and without appeal in matters of doctrine. 
To act otherwise was most effectually to endanger the 
unity of the Church, by rousing up in independent minds 
a violent reaction against their summary measures. 

Moreover, apart from their official acts, couched, as a 
matter of course, in official phraseology, their total igno- 
rance of their real position was sufficiently proved not only 
by the relentlessly aggressive character of this or that par- 
ticular step, but by the numberless pamphlets issued at 
the time by the representatives of their body — pamphlets, 
whose angry and personal tone, degenerating at times into 
vulgar insult, was utterly unworthy of the position of their 
authors, and furnished a remarkable contrast to the quiet 
dignity which characterised my father throughout, though 
they succeeded, nevertheless, in exposing him to public 
derision and contempt. 

All which is so indisputably true, that the question is 
forcibly suggested whether it was not, after all, their object 
so to act, as to render a reconciliation simply impossible. 

Whatever reply we may give to this conjecture, we may 
content ourselves with observing that, meeting them on 



WHERE THE NATIONAL CHURCH ERRED. 107 



their own ground, they appear to have been called upon to 
act in an entirely opposite manner. They should have 
conciliated to the Church — assuming their avowed interest 
in its welfare — those whom they drove from it. They 
should have endeavoured not merely to respect the posi- 
tion these men had already acquired, but, by gradually 
enlarging the sphere of their activity, they should have 
left it to an earnest duty-doing career to soften down any 
possible error of judgment or impetuous zeal incident to 
young and enthusiastic temperaments. Above all, affect- 
ing to trace in Malan violent ambition, it was, at the best, 
but mistaken policy to inflame it by a pedantic, irritating, 
and paltry opposition. They should, at all hazards, have 
enlisted on their side that deep attachment to their Church 
and country, which distinguished him through the whole 
struggle, and which, in spite of his sincerity and candour, 
involved him once in a false position. 

In a word, we maintain that it should have been their 
first consideration to win over, in the interests of the cause 
they pretended to have at heart, a man in whose character 
they detected the operation of such powerful and service- 
able influences. 

So far from acting thus, they forced him, against his 
instincts, to live mixed up with the anti-ecclesiastical 
party, from which not only his very sympathies estranged 
him, but who openly stigmatised his hesitation and delays 
in clinging to the old institutions of his country, as a 
weakness or want of faithfulness. 

In a word, they might have displayed tact, only they 
did not know how to do it. It was in their power to be 
moderate and judicious ; they preferred to be violent. It 



108 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAK 



is this that brings out, in its true light, their deplorable 
infatuation. They had no notion of the true character of 
that religious liberty of which they claimed to be the repre- 
sentatives ; and hence, while they indulged in high-sound- 
ing talk about their position as the heads of the Eeformed 
Church of Geneva, they ended by resembling those fana- 
tical obscurantists to whom Eome owes all her faults. 
Following close upon the traces of the old enemies of Pro- 
testantism, they would have acted far more prudently had 
they chosen for repetition those epochs in the history of 
the past wherein, their Church had had the wisdom to turn 
to her profit, and to secure in her service, such occasionally 
indiscreet enthusiasm as she might chance to observe in 
her children. 

Admitting, therefore — what indeed is difficult to admit 
— that the Eegulation of the 3d of May had not been 
directed against Malan personally — admitting that, so far 
from interfering by act and deed of theirs to enjoin silence 
with regard to dogmas openly avowed and formularised by 
that very Church of which they claimed the name and 
privileges, they had but put in force a regulation originally 
incorporated in her ecclesiastical provisions, still it cer- 
tainly was the part of a Protestant authority — exulting, by 
the way, in its Protestant liberalism — to seek to soften 
down the wording of engagements so violently opposed 
to the faith of many of her members. 

Instead of doing this, it was that authority which 
framed these very engagements, in order to drive out from 
amongst them, under pretence of insubordination, not such 
of their clergy as actually held that Eegulation to be a 
virtual denial of the ancient faith, but the only one amongst 



CLERICAL AUTHORITY IN DOCTRINE. 



109 



them who was bold and sincere enough to avow openly 
what others thought as well as he. 

That authority of the clergy in matters of doctrine — in 
the name and by virtue of which the ministers of that 
day drove Malan from the school- desk and from the 
pulpit, and finally sought to deprive him of his ecclesias- 
tical status — does not, and cannot exist in a Protestant 
Church. In fact, a clergy worthy of such a designation 
aims exclusively at protesting, like the Eeformers of 
the sixteenth century, in the name of the faith of the 
heart, against the tyranny of such doctrines or such insti- 
tutions as have no other title to our respect but their 
merely traditional character. 

And it may be safely added that what is true generally 
holds good more particularly in the case of those who had 
themselves departed so entirely from ancient forms. Not 
to speak of the abstract rights of religious liberty — to pass 
over which, in such a case, is, to say the least of it, singu- 
lar, and judging the clergy of Geneva only by the standard 
of their acts — it is evident that, from the time they entered 
on the abolition of old forms, they had no other duty, as 
far as matters of faith are concerned, than to be the impar- 
tial representatives of the faith of the flock committed to 
their care. 

When we look at the present state of the Church of 
Geneva, at the entire religious toleration which pervades 
it, at the fact that the most advanced broad churchman, or 
the most enthusiastic evangelical, may each find its pulpits 
occupied to his individual taste, it is not easy to realise 
that there was a time when such a censure as we have 
just recorded could justly be passed on that Church. 



110 



LIFE OF CJEMR MALAK 



Undoubtedly the times then were very different from 
the present epoch, and my father had to do battle with 
prejudices which are already in a visible decline. 

At the time that he built his chapel in his garden, there 
had been no such open appearance in Geneva of a dissent- 
ing congregation. In all the Protestant countries on the 
Continent, the Church was invariably regarded as attached 
to the State ; in Geneva, indeed, the latter had derived not 
only her lustre from the former, but her strength and 
security. Seceders, therefore, or sectaries, as they were 
sometimes called, were looked upon by the people as semi- 
rebels and insurgents, as promoters of disaffection, and dis- 
turbers of the national peace. 

In such a case, it was clearly the duty of the heads of 
the Protestant Church, instead of conniving at, and even 
stimulating popular passions, to encounter, by all the 
means in their power, the prejudices of the multitude, due 
to their own neglect, and, by every possible effort, to en- 
lighten public opinion. 

If it be urged, therefore, that the narrow-mindedness of 
the lower orders, and their utter ignorance of the rights of 
liberty of thought, furnish the only clue to the attitude 
assumed by the old Genevan clergy, and consequently ex- 
plain the proceedings which resulted from their view of the 
question, there is nothing in all this to free their measures 
from that stigma which will always attach to them in the 
opinion of every lover of justice and freedom. 

But in order to form a due estimate of the whole case, 
there yet remains a position more exalted, less personal, 
less painful, therefore, and embracing more important 
interests. This is the position resulting from faith in those 



HOW TO REGARD THE WHOLE QUESTION. Ill 



eternal realities to which the gospel testifies ; it is the 
position assumed by him who believes in the presence of a 
spiritual kingdom distinct from that earthly kingdom of 
God to which our natural birth introduces us : — a kingdom 
into which no one can penetrate but through the " new 
birth/' which we are told takes place in our souls through 
the direct agency of the Holy Spirit. 

Taking up this position — the only right one, to our 
mind, from which to regard a spiritual topic — we see at 
once that the clerical body of Geneva displayed not merely 
want of tact and equity of dealing, but, as has been loudly 
testified from every quarter, in their resistance to the 
revival they were found fighting against God ! 

Tor most assuredly that which they opposed was none 
other than the grace of the living God, Who speaks directly 
to the human conscience. It was the cause of the freedom 
of the soul — the cause of the gospel, as the supreme law 
to the hearts of men. It was that holy and awful cause 
which who will may freely advocate now in the pulpits of 
Geneva. It was in its defence that Malan suffered ! And 
hence we have no hesitation in affirming that those who 
cherish it in their inmost souls will cherish, side by side 
with it, the memory of Malan. 

As for those who hold that there are some yet alive who 
would fain bury in oblivion the record of his achievements, 
can they give a satisfactory explanation of this want of 
sympathy ? Is it to the defects of the man himself that 
their indifference is to be ascribed ? We can hardly think 
so ; his faults, whatever they may have been, found their 
harshest critic in himself. " Oh, but the injury he has 
done to clerical authority in Geneva," say some ; " He has 



112 LIFE OF CJESAR MALAK 



troubled us," say others. As for the authority of the 
clergy, Malan never assailed it ; he never even thought of 
such a thing. If that authority has injured itself by its 
attacks upon the unconquerable faith of that man of God, 
there is no thinking man who would regret its condemna- 
tion, actually involved in that very fact. As regards 
this general indictment that my father had troubled his 
country, it can only be met in his own words, when in 
1817 he begged his opponents to distinguish accurately 
between offence given and offence taken; not to refer, 
for additional illustration and reply, to a case more ancient 
still — the case of One Who found Himself a stumbling- 
block in his native town. 

Malan's entire life, and, more particularly, his public 
struggle with the clerical body, rank among those facts of 
history which compel men either to shut their eyes alto- 
gether, or to submit candidly to the alternative compelling 
them to choose between the glory that cometh from man, 
and that which proceeds from God alone. No one can 
study such a narrative honestly without seeing himself 
forced, either to side with the prejudices of a world which, 
while it calls itself Christian, can still too often manage to 
deny the rights of the faith and the obligations it entails, 
or with those whose sincerity and decision has led them to 
prefer to the approval of men, what saints and martyrs 
have hailed for two thousand years, " The reproach of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 



CHAPTEK III. 



m alan's chapel, and pastoeal woek up to the yeae 1830. 

" Who loved, who suffered countless ills, 
Who battled for the True, the Just." 

On the 19th March 1820, Malan commenced to build his 
chapel in the garden of the Pre 1'Eveque. 

At the first blows of the pick-axe, Felix Noeff, (who, 
at that time a soldier in the garrison, used to employ his 
leisure days in working for private families,) turned over 
in the soil a small piece of copper, which he carried to my 
father. It was a medal, with an effigy of a sower on one 
side, and the inscription " Ejactura lucrum." As he looked 
at the device, my father could not help recalling the words 
of the Psalmist, in which an abundant harvest is promised 
to him "who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed." 
He remembered, too, the coin which Franke had found 
when he was laying the foundation of his orphanage. 

Indeed he had good need to look for the help of God 
upon his work. "When I began," he said, "I had only 
£10 to count upon, a subscription given me by a brother 
in Ireland. The day that the medal was found I received 
unexpectedly, through the post, £24, which the brethren 

H 



114 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



at Wiirtemberg had forwarded to help roe "in rebuilding 
the walls of Jerusalem." This was, however, the only funds 
that he possessed for a long time, till, in the month of 
June, when, after my mother had tried in vain to persuade 
him to appropriate her property, he determined to sell his 
house for the benefit of the new chapel. As he was about 
to carry out his intention, however, he suddenly received 
abundant supplies from various quarters, addressed in each 
case to himself personally, and sent to aid him in his 
work. 

Let me mention an incident which he related to me by 
way of showing "how effectually he was taught, in the 
whole affair, to rest on God alone." He was in the midst 
of his building operations, and had to pay the architect a 
particular sum on a given day, when he received three 
letters by the same post. He hastened to open two of 
them, in the address of which he detected the handwriting 
of some friends he had relied upon for help ; but inside he 
found nothing but excuses, and even indirect censures of 
his undertaking. As he showed them to my mother, with 
the simple remark that He Who would not that we should 
make flesh our arm, would be sure to provide, she asked 
him to open the third. He did so, and found inside an 
order for £100, sent, with a few cheering words, by an entire 
stranger. 

Such was the way in which the chapel, which took six 
months to build, was paid for within eight months of its 
commencement, so that, as he used to say, it might well have 
been called " Philadelphia." He styled it " La Chapelle du 
Temoignage," the Chapel of Testimony, partly as expressing 
his intention to deliver within it none other message than 



DEDICATION. 



115 



the testimony God had given of His Son, and partly because 
he wished it to be a standing testimony against the clergy 
of Geneva who had cast him out for the gospel's sake. 

He placed under the corner-stone a leaden box contain- 
ing a parchment, which I myself removed when the build- 
ing was taken down in 1864. The document, written in 
his own hand, ran as follows : — 

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost. 0 Eternal God ! my God and Saviour ! my heart 
is filled with joy for the mercy Thou hast bestowed on Thy 
servant in permitting him to build this church. I implore 
Thee to bless it with Thy sovereign grace, for the alone 
merits' sake of Thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, my 
Eedeemer, my Master. 

" 0 Lord, according to Thy promise, let Thy Name be 
there ! Amen. 

" The Church of Geneva is desolate. The gospel is seldom 
heard in our midst. A deadly heresy is destroying souls. 
Christ is no longer worshipped as God eternal, manifest in 
the flesh, and His merits are likened to the merits of a 
creature. 

"The Lord has raised up in our city, for some years, 
preachers of the truth, who have withdrawn from the 
National Church. 

" God has had compassion upon me ! I have been de- 
prived of my collegiate appointment, and banished from 
the pulpit of my country because I was faithful to the 
ministry conferred upon me by man in 1820, and by the 
Lord in 1817. 

"Without separating from the Church, I have now been 
preaching in this garden for a year and a half in a little 



116 



LIFE OF CJESAPv MALAN. 



chapel. Required for the accommodation of an increasing 
flock, this larger building will witness the glory of God, 
for He has erected it. It is my resolve to preach in it the 
gospel of Christ as embodied in the Confession of Faith, of 
the Swiss Churches. 

"Christians in Germany, (Stuttgardt, Leomberg, Metz- 
ingen,) in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, America, 
and Switzerland, have supplied the funds for its erection. 

" This corner-stone, which I pray God to erect spiritually 
on the Great Corner-stone which the builders rejected, has 
been laid by me and my house to the glory of the most 
Holy Trinity. " Cesar Malan, 

"Minister of the Church of Geneva. 

"Friday, 28th April, 1820." 

That same year, on the 7th October, my father, occupy- 
ing the little temporary building for the last time, gave 
thanks to God, with the whole congregation, for all that 
His hand had done. The next day he inaugurated the 
new chapel. 

A congregation of about eight hundred people was pre- 
sent at that solemnity, appointed for two p.m. There were 
gens d'armes stationed along the approach, and at the 
entrance, to prevent confusion. After the reading of the 
Confession of Faith and the Ten Commandments, chanting, 
and prayer, my father, taking for his text Solomon's words 
at the dedication of the temple, " The Lord our God be 
with us as He was with our fathers," (1 Kings viii. 57, 58), 
explained to his hearers that his one object was to supply 
a place in the midst of them, where they might hear, in 
its simplicity, the gospel of Christ, as received and 



THE NEW CHURCH. 



117 



declared by their fathers, to the words, faith, and deeds of 
whom he made a brief reference. 

Thus began, in a manner independent of the traditional 
habits of the official Church, the work of public testimony, 
exacted by the circumstances in which he had been 
involved, with the irrevocable declaration of his resolve, all 
Church decrees notwithstanding, to exercise the office with 
which he had been solemnly entrusted. 

His position at this time was that of an established 
minister, supported by an ever-increasing congregation, 
and desiring to remain steadfast in his allegiance to the doc- 
trines of the Eeformation. If, four years later, at the time 
of his coerced secession, he found himself with a settled flock 
around him, it must be remembered that he was as far as 
possible from anticipating this contingency when he 
signed himself at the foot of the document I have quoted, 
" Minister of the Church of Geneva," or when he opened 
his chapel in the October of the same year. Some time 
after that event, in January 1821, he published his declar- 
ation of fidelity to the National Church, in which he cast 
from him the reproach of having created a schism, which 
he said, when the terms of his ordination oath were 
remembered, amounted to nothing short of a charge of 
perjury. 

That declaration contains some passages which, while 
they show the humility of my father's spirit, furnish also a 
very correct description of his relation to the Church. 
After stating that, at the close of eight years, in which 
his doctrine had been utterly opposed to the gospel of 
Christ, he was converted from a rationalist to a Christian, 
he continues as follows : — 



118 



LIFE OF CJESAPl MALAN. 



" I experienced at my first awakening what Paul himself 
dreaded for the new converts. I fell into spiritual pride, 
and my speech, too, smacked often of a severity which 
Christian love condemns, and which I now abhor." And 
he adds, that it was probably to his vehemence and want 
of tact that the severity of the measures against him might 
be attributed. 

" At that time," he goes on to say, " I went over to Eng- 
land, where I met several ministers of the various Churches. 
Their faith served to strengthen mine. Their writings and 
sermons showed me that we were bound to set forth the 
truth firmly but kindly, and their Christian charity made 
me feel how sadly I had been wanting in that virtue my- 
self. Hence, on my return to Geneva, I tried to bring 
about a reconciliation with my superiors. My appeals, 
however, met with no response, and I was left in my 
deposed condition. However, I had learnt a fact most im- 
portant to me, and of which I had previously been ignorant, 
that our Church of Geneva had held, from its earliest 
establishment, and in accordance with its unalterable 
character for more than two hundred years, the very same 
opinions which I professed myself. This discovery warranted 
my acting as a minister of that Church. Many a time the 
dread of innovating had held me back, but as soon as I 
understood that, by attaching myself to our ancient faith, 
I was most effectually upholding my ordination vows, I 
did not hesitate to adhere to my ministerial office, and to 
fulfil its obligations." 

He then relates how he had been induced to build a 
" house of prayer," and exclaims, "I declare before God 
that my only aim has been to discharge my obligations in 



CATHOLICITY. 



119 



the presence of my fellow-citizens, by simply doing, to 
the utmost of my power, the work of an evangelical 
minister and guardian of the precions trust of the gospel 
of grace." 

All his earlier publications prove that this was his one 
object, and show to what extent he regarded his involun- 
tary secession, as an evil to which he was compelled to 
submit for conscience' sake, and in the interests of the 
truth, the integrity of which he deemed to be infinitely 
more important than any considerations arising from mere 
feeling, tradition, or regard for external unity. 

Already, in 1818, in his little tract, entitled "Come and 
See," he had avowed his deliberate resolve never to sepa- 
rate willingly from what he called "our Church of 
Geneva." At the same time he affirmed (in contradistinc- 
tion from the clergy at its head), that he desired to main- 
tain with the seceders the same relations that he would 
wish to see subsisting between himself and any other 
Christians in Geneva, or in the whole world. " Whether 
they style themselves Protestants or Eomanists, Greeks 
or Anglicans, Lutherans or Calvinists, Quakers or Mora- 
vians, what matters it to me ! Whoever believes with all 
his heart in the merits of the Lord Jesus, is my brother, 
and as soon as I have recognised him as such, I testify it 
to him as much as it is in my power." 

No one can help recognising in all this, that Christianity 
of the heart which should ever supersede all purely 
ecclesiastical questions, inasmuch as it takes precedence of 
all mere ecclesiastical life, and, being eternal itself, like the 
God Who implants it in the believing soul, is destined to 
survive the overthrow of denominations, and the wreck of 



120 



LIFE OF CjFSAR MALAN. 



Churches. Should it appear, at a later period, that my 
father lost sight occasionally of that catholicity of spirit 
which the passage just quoted indicates, this never arose, 
as will be abundantly evident, from any sectarian bitter- 
ness, but simply from a perhaps too tenacious grasp of 
exclusively doctrinal views. 

It began in sheer fidelity, a fidelity which had beheld 
the sacrifice of his most cherished natural inclinations. If 
it be alleged, with reference to the seceders who had gone 
before him, that they too had left the Church for the same 
reason, the statement must be amplified and extended in 
his case, inasmuch as his secession, so far from being vol- 
untary, was the result of positive compulsion. He never 
ceased to declare, that had he been permitted to preach the 
doctrine of Christ's divinity, and of a free salvation as it 
was inscribed in their ancient formularies, he would never 
have quitted the Church. 

"When, after three years' service in the garden chapel, he 
was driven to that step, the very existence of his ministry 
being at stake, he was careful to have it understood that 
he withdrew only from the Establishment as then existing. 
And we have just seen that he never felt himself at 
liberty to preach the word, from the time of his exclusion 
from the national pulpits, till he discovered that the truths 
which he taught were the faith of the ancient Church, a 
Church loved by none more passionately than himself, as 
none held more emphatically than he did the doctrines of 
her founder. Over and over again did he assert that he 
had by no means withdrawn himself from the Church of 
his ancestors, but that, on the contrary, his sufferings had 
resulted from fidelity to her cause. 



CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH OF TESTIMONY. 121 



And not only was this his own view of the case, but it 
was also shared by such as regarded the whole matter 
simply in the light of historic truth as well as by those 
who partook of his faith. 

Let it be added, that if he did thus rend the ties which 
attached him to the Establishment, he did so, not under the 
influence of particular opinions on Church matters properly 
so called, but simply and solely at the bidding of evangeli- 
cal truth. Not as a pastor, not as the " incumbent of a 
church/ 5 but as a minister, or mere preacher, he commenced 
a vocation outside the walls of the national sanctuary in 
which he had been reared, and from which he found him- 
self eventually expelled. 

If I appear to dwell upon this point at some length, it 
is because there have been those who have thought that 
the " Church of Testimony " was an attempted revival of 
the old Theocratic Church of Calvin. This was so little the 
case, that as we have just heard it stated by himself, it was 
not till long after he had been refused the use of the pulpit, 
that he discovered what had in reality been the doctrine 
and institutions of the primitive Church of Geneva. 
If, therefore, in a certain measure, there be found, in the 
religious sentiments of my father, what can justly be called 
a theocratical tendency, it is not to that tendency that we 
are to trace his secession from the Church. Still less can 
it be urged with truth, that while his doctrine was akin to 
the doctrine of the great Eeformer, it was that circumstance 
which impelled him to adopt it. 

As we shall have occasion to see, he had not even read 
the writings of Calvin when he first affirmed his doctrine, 
which, at least until E. Haldane's visit, was solely the 



122 



LIFE OF CJESAB 31 ALAN. 



confession of his feelings as a Christian. In general, it 
must he allowed that my father's work was, on the whole, 
or in its essential features, one of confession and testimony 
of personal faith. We shall see how his ecclesiastical work, 
far from having originated his secession, came to be added 
at a ranch later period, in consequence of peculiar circum- 
stances, to what he had always considered his peculiar mis- 
sion, viz., the duty of "witnessing for the truth in Geneva' 1 
Even then, (in his Church work,) he did not think of 
copying Calvin. 

This confusion of the Church with the nation, resulting 
in an intimate alliance between the civil and ecclesiastical 
powers, and a consequent rigid system of Church discipline, 
never found favour in his eyes. So far from regarding 
himself as representing institutions which, in his judgment, 
belonged to a different age, he never ceased to uphold the 
idea of a historic development of the visible institutions 
of the Church, in opposition to that of a permanent and 
divinely revealed Church constitution, which was more or 
less expressly professed around him. 

Possessing to a high degree that historical and traditional 
instinct which generally accompanies a powerful imagina- 
tion and a heart prone to emotion, nothing ever appeared 
to him so distasteful as to assume the character of an in- 
novator. It certainly was not his ambition to be thus re- 
garded, nor did he consider such a reputation as by any 
means creditable. He was so far from aspiring to the dis- 
tinction, that, in his requests to the magistrates, he based 
his appeals on the rights he claimed as a member of the 
old and only true Church of the country. He did not even 
hesitate in his application to affirm that the clergy had 



VISIONS OF GLORY. 



123 



no right to the powers they exercised, simply because in 
an innovating spirit they had gradually and surreptitiously 
grafted new doctrines on the catechism and regulations of 
the ancient Church. Confident that he would himself be 
permitted to see the Church emerge from a state of virtual 
secession from itself, and return to the faith of its founders, 
or, in other words, to the pure gospel, he looked upon his 
rupture with the powers ecclesiastical, at first as merely 
temporary, and the position in which for a time it had 
placed him as simply provisional. 

This is apparent not only from his " Declaration of 
Fidelity," &c, but from all his writings of that period. 
It especially shows itself in his " Conventicule de Eolle," 
which he published in November 1821. Through all its 
pages there breathes a spirit of holy confidence and joyous 
hope in the anticipation of this event — an event to be 
marked by a revival, " attended," he says, " by more 
Christian charity, possibly by more liberality of senti- 
ment than even the Eeformation itself displayed. The 
harvest is just beginning. We are on the threshold of 
glorious days. The Sun of Righteousness has arisen upon 
our beautiful Switzerland, and I trust that we are near- 
ing a time of conspicuous triumph for the gospel in the 
world." 

Who can fail to detect in these words the gracious kind- 
ness of our heavenly Father illuminating the path of his 
servants with the light of a future they are not destined to 
behold in the flesh. So it was with Moses ; so, too, with 
prophets and apostles. So it was supremely with the 
Master Himself, Who inaugurated with the joyful days of 
Galilee a ministry which was soon to encounter the angry 



124 



LIFE OF CJESAB MA LAN. 



outcries of Jerusalem, and the bitter hatred of her 
Sanhedrim. 

My father's sentiments, so devoid of any special ecclesi- 
astical bias, show how it was that he and his were able to 
continue, up to the building of his chapel, in full communion 
with the ^National Church, and how, up to the year 1821, 
he invariably presented his children for baptism in that 
Church. 

Even strangers perfectly understood that such was his 
position. As a proof of it, let me quote here a few extracts 
from letters addressed to him in 1821 and 1823, by the 
Eev. D. Bogue of Gosport, in reference to which my father 
writes to A. Haldane in 1826, on the occasion of the demise 
of the writer: "I was sincerely attached to him, and possess 
two of his letters, which will be useful not only to myself, 
but to my children after me." After telling him his im- 
pression on reading his document, and seeing how they had 
compelled him to withdraw from the Church of Geneva, 
he adds : " I bless God, Who has endowed you with such 
gifts for the edification of mankind, and instilled into 
your mind the pure principles of the Gospel of Christ, in 
a place where they have been too generally refuted. The 
Lord Jesus has, I trust, raised you up to be the instru- 
ment of an extensive reformation in Geneva and the nei^h- 
bouring countries. The opposition you met with, though 
painful, was to be expected; and it is matter of great 
thankfulness to God that you were strengthened to stand up 
against it with so much firmness and success. I rejoiced 
greatly at the truly Christian spirit which you were enabled 
to manifest in your answers to your adversaries. There 
was nothing in them of the wrath of man which worketh 



VOICES FROM OTHER LANDS. 



125 



not the righteousness of God, but, on the contrary, that 
meekness which cometh from above, and which could not 
fail to produce the most beneficial effects. If the clergy 
could not be moved, yet the people must have felt deeply 
your truly Christian defence of your principles and conduct. 
I was greatly pleased, too, that you did not recede from 
the mode of government and regulations of the Church 
of Geneva. It grieved me when I heard that some 
pious people had set up a new system of Church govern- 
ment, and blended adult baptism with the controversy, 
because it gave the adversaries of the truth a handle 
against them, and called away the minds of the people 
from the grand doctrinal controversy to subjects of a very 
inferior nature. But your continuance in the same prin- 
ciples of Church government with the clergy, prevented 
them from charging you with introducing a new ecclesias- 
tical system, and kept the eyes of the public fixed on the 
grand subject of the controversy, namely, the fundamental 
doctrines of the gospel of Christ. You have only to per- 
severe in following the same method, and your success 
is certain. Already I understand it has been considerable, 
and I have no doubt you will see greater things, and that 
there will be a gradual return from these dangerous 
opinions which have torn up the very foundations of real 
piety, to the pure truths of the gospel which Calvin and 
Beza, F. Turrettini and Pictet, maintained in ancient days. 
I have not a doubt, if you live many years, you will 
see these doctrines revived in all their former glory, and 
cordially received by the people." Speaking of the general 
revival of the faith which was then taking place in Eng- 
land and on the Continent : " Young ministers," he says, 



126 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



" have joyful clays before them, and you may labour with 
a hope of seeing a rapid advancement of the kingdom of 
Christ. With such prospects before you, how important 
that you should be daily wrestling with God in prayer." 
" You must still expect," writes the same venerable friend 
in another letter two years later, "determined and bitter 
opposition, but in the end you will prevail, while 
Arians and Socinians will sink in the public estimation. 
They want the principles which give life and energy to 
a system, and, do what they will, they will experience a 
gradual decay. Be not discouraged, then, but assure 
yourself of victory and of the triumph of the Eedeemer's 
cause." 

We may see from these letters how my father had 
assumed towards the dissenters the same position of liberty 
and superiority in matters of ecclesiastical policy, which 
characterised his dealings with the Establishment. Thus, in 
July 1820, while he was building his chapel, he declined an 
offer from M. Empeytaz to join " The Little Church." The 
fact was, as we shall presently see in various ways, that 
though he was joined in faith with the men who presided 
over the meetings in that Church, their object materially 
differed from his. And this led him to set aside the proposal 
just referred to, with the explanation that he and they 
were scarcely pursuing the same path, and that the work 
to which he had been led to devote himself was by no 
means identical with theirs. Their separation from the 
Church arose simply from a desire to establish an inde- 
pendent religious communion. Without speaking of the 
Church question with those individual prejudices which it 
is so apt to call up, we may state that their great anxiety was 



POETIC FEELING AND ACTIVE OBEDIENCE. 127 



rather to create an intimate brotherly union than to secure 
an accurate and well-defined system of dogmatic theology ; 
in that respect, except as regards the great facts of salva- 
tion, they held no clear and precise opinions. 

In my father's judgment, this was a capital error. 
Whilst they reproached him with a tendency to dogmatic 
isolation, his answer was, that he could not sympathise 
with their religion of feeling. 

Eeligious sentiment, what the Germans call poetism, 
and what we may term mere devotion, inasmuch as this 
appellation describes the more sensuous side of religious 
life, — had few charms for him. It always appeared to 
him as the evidence of a morbid, self-seeking tendency, 
a weakness repugnant to the sobriety and manliness of 
his character. His spiritual life, from the very first, 
was marked by no idle study of his own personal feel- 
ings, but rather by an active, healthy, earnest obedience 
to the will of Him Whose holy presence ever filled his 
soul. 

Not that it is to be inferred from all this, that he held 
himself aloof from them, or that he estranged himself from 
the various dissenting Churches which persecution had 
called forth in the Canton de Vaud. Their members were 
his brethren in the faith. More than that, he looked upon 
them as " saints," as " elect," as " children of God," and as 
such, regarded them with tenderest affection. " Not many 
years ago," he said in 1821, "I should have been ashamed 
to associate with them. Now their companionship is to 
me a source of sweet delight." Nor did he confine himself 
to cordial relations with the young ministers who were the 
prime movers in the Vaudois revival, or the pastors of the 



128 



LIFE OF CJESAR II ALAN. 



Bourg de Four, lie endeavoured to render them solid service, 
by espousing their cause in public, and by sharing with 
them the supplies which he received for his work. 

Among them all, M. Empeytaz was more especially his 
friend. In a note in his handwriting, dated 6th September 
1821, he says, "The Lord has put it into my heart to give 
up my pulpit to-day, for the first time, to M. Empeytaz, 
who is to preach, please God, this evening. I look upon 
this as an important step in the right direction." Com- 
menting; next on the remarks that had been made about 
his presence in one of the temples of the National Church, 
at the communion, the Sunday before, he observes, " My 
doing so, as a proof of tolerance and Christian charity, 
increases the value of any service I may render to my 
seceding brethren." 

A few days afterwards, my father, in concert with them, 
wrote a circular letter " to the faithful pastors in Geneva, 
and in the rest of Switzerland," inviting them to join him 
in the ordination of M. Empeytaz. It was to be signed by 
him as minister of Geneva. In it, though the arrangement 
proposed was not carried out, as the ordination did not take 
place at the time, he carefully stated with reference to the 
candidate, "that though he had been called upon to do 
battle with error, he had never judged or condemned erring 
ones. Asserting pointedly his utter aversion to schism, 
and to all separation from Ms brethren, he had only con- 
sented to preside over a gathering of some amongst them, 
for the sake of rendering open testimony of his attachment 
to the doctrines of the gospel. A declaration which his 
present conduct warrants, as he wishes to be ordained a 
minister in the Presbyterian Church of Geneva." 



CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 



129 



It is apparent at once, how far, even at the time 
that he was exhibiting such decision in his testimony, his 
ecclesiastical position was defined, and to what extent he 
kept up his relation to the Church in conjunction with 
his maintenance of purity of doctrine. 

Gradually, however, circumstances led him to determine 
his position more accurately. In January 1821, just after 
publishing his " Declaration of Fidelity/' he became con- 
vinced that it was his duty to introduce a system of dis- 
cipline into what had hitherto been a mere assembly of 
hearers. This impression arose out of a conversation with 
an English dissenting minister. He hesitated, however, so 
long, that he began at last to accuse himself of unfaithful- 
ness and apathy. " As I was lying awake one night," he 
writes, " I sat up on my bed, and solemnly pledged myself 
and my whole being to the service of Christ, beseeching 
Him to consecrate me thoroughly to Himself, and to 
tear asunder every bond that held me back from entire 
obedience. The next day, as I was walking and reading 
the Scriptures, I asked to be guided to a passage for my 
meditation, which would reveal His will concerning me. 
After I had closed the Bible, a thousand thoughts rushed 
into my mind ; but one only reigned supreme, filling my 
soul with strength and repose : it was the conviction that 
I ought to exercise a godly supervision over the souls be- 
gotten again by the Word I had been permitted to preach 
- — by establishing discipline amongst them. From that 
moment I experienced the most tranquil joy and greater 
freedom than ever in my delivery of the message. I felt 
an inward support, and a trust in the Lord Jesus all but 

new to me. This was the finger of God." He goes on to 

i 



130 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAX. 



say that in this enterprise he met with the sanction and 
encouragement of those around him. 

In thus abandoning himself to the liveliness of his 
emotions, he little thought that he was taking the first 
step towards forming an Independent Church. The dis- 
cipline here indicated had nothing to do with admission 
to the sacrament, which was not then given in his chapel 
It was simply applied to constituting what had been 
hitherto a mere congregation of habitual hearers — a com- 
munity of selected members. ^Nevertheless, three years 
afterwards, when the final links of attachment were sun- 
dered, he found himself — thanks to this first step — at the 
head of a separate and thoroughly constituted community. 
Up to that time he had confidently hoped to be permitted 
to assist in winning back the Church of his fathers to its 
original position, seeing in that a common meeting ground 
for all true evangelical Christians. This will serve to 
explain his peculiar position from 1821 to 1823. 

What proves, moreover, our last statement, is the fact 
that the same persons who had been all encouragement, 
when, in 1821, he sought to honour the ancient laws of the 
Church with reference to the government of the faithful, 
opposed him openly in 1824, on the assumption that he 
was endeavouring to establish an independent body. One 
of those, in his most intimate confidence, in particular, 
used every effort at this crisis to make him abandon his 
decision by representing to Tn'm that the position of 
leader of a flock was ill-suited to his independence of 
character and of action — that in such a capacity he would 
be like an eagle in a cage, wounding himself and others — 
wasting his powers, and ending by destroying them. 



DISORDER IX THE ESTABLISHMENT. 131 



Still lie was not convinced. The establishment of an 
independent community appeared to him to be not only 
his duty, side by side with those which devolved upon 
him as a preacher : he viewed it as constituting in itself 
a permanent protest against the disorderly condition of the 
Church he had just quitted. 

Xow that the subject of Free Churches is a familiar one, 
not merely in religious circles, his hesitation in this 
matter may occasion surprise, more particularly when his 
natural clearness of judgment and decision of character are 
taken into consideration. But, as De Goltz has well ob- 
served, in reference to this and all kindred topics, and the 
light in which they presented themselves at the commence- 
ment of the revival, " All these cases showed that it was 
not theories that started facts, but facts that produced 
theories." These words of De Goltz I find underlined in 
my father's copy of his book. 

Xow, the " facts " in reference to the Church of Geneva 
at this time, were well known. From the middle of the 
last century the decay of independent belief in individuals 
had led to this result, that the Church, becoming more 
and more confounded with the nation, Protestant rights 
— tantamount then to the rights of a citizen of Geneva — 
superseded the duties of a Christian in the exact sense of 
the word. Hence it arose, that communions in Geneva 
degenerated into mere national solemnities, which no 
one could omit without casting suspicion on his patriotism 
and respectability. In accordance with this tradition, in 
the great annual fast-day sermons, in which our pastors 
are in the habit of speaking in a more pointed and special 
manner to their parishioners, infrequent attendance at the 



132 



LIFE OF CMBAB MALAK 



Lord's table figured constantly in the list of the scandalous 
offences with which the population, considered as such, 
were charged. Participation in that solemn ordinance had 
come to be regarded without reference to the living faith 
in the heart of the communicant, but merely as a thing 
to be done ; and that not only because it was proper and 
incumbent, but because the doing of it secured the favour 
of heaven. Impressions such as these were not wanting 
in other Protestant Churches ; they were nowhere perhaps 
more apparent than in the Church of Geneva. 

Such a state of things as this called loudly for a protest. 
How this protest was to be expressed became a question 
only to be decided by the circumstances which rendered it 
necessary. Theoretically, of course, there were two ways 
open; either to regard all discipline in reference to the 
Holy Communion as a matter to be left to the responsibility 
of the communicant himself, care being taken on the one 
hand to instruct him as to his duty, while all risk of placing 
him in a false position by the misapplication of rules and 
requirements was avoided ; or, on the other hand, to 
entrust that discipline to the ministers themselves to 
exercise it in behalf of their flocks, by welcome or ex- 
clusion, as occasion should arise. 

As a matter of fact, however, such an alternative as this, 
which even now might fail to be immediately obvious to 
many of the clergy, could scarcely have presented itself to 
Malan, brought up as he had been in a Church where the 
predominating influence of the clergy had resulted in de- 
priving the religious life of the faithful of all unfettered 
individual action. Prom the moment, therefore, when he 
detected the abuses we have just pointed out, he fastened 



WHAT HE WANTED FOB HIS TASK. 133 



upon the question of discipline, not as one to be studied 
anxiously on its own merits, but as involving particular 
obligations incumbent upon Mm in his ecclesiastical capa- 
city — obligations all the more urgent in his eyes, as he had 
daily proof of the evils resulting from their neglect. 

Granted that these abuses constituted a prima facie 
ground for maintaining as a principle the necessity for 
ecclesiastical discipline, the mere contemplation of them 
could never have sufficed as a practical guide, in respect of 
ways and means of remedy, to the founder of a model 
Church. Such an enterprise required an experience and a 
class of qualifications very different from his. To him the 
task was far from reducing itself to a mere servile repeti- 
tion of what he might have imagined to be the constitution 
of the Apostolic Churches. Opposed to such a principle 
of imitation, as it is sometimes called, a principle which 
had made Puritans of some amongst his brethren, in the 
strict historical sense of the term, no sooner had he 
felt himself called upon to found a religious community, 
than he saw it to be his duty to frame its future constitution. 

Meanwhile, he had no precedents to guide him to his 
task, and no other material to work upon, than his general 
conception of the Presbyterian Constitution. But this was 
not enough for all that he required. To fit him for his 
undertaking, he needed a thorough insight into the history 
of Genevan Protestantism; more than this, of the Christian 
Church itself, from which the Protestant Communion had 
sprung, in all the principles of its origin, and all the details 
of its protracted and laborious progress. Over against 
these indispensable qualifications, we must set his own 
alleged total ignorance on the subject, and the considera- 



134 LIFE OF CJESAB MALAK 



tion that it had never been comprehended in any of his 
earlier studies. 

But more even than this. To found a Church requires 
not only a definite and perspicuous creed, a decided and 
consistent character, Christian charity equally sincere and 
active, with a heart thoroughly renewed — all this my father 
had in a high degree — but, in addition to these qualifications, 
infinite capacity for management, a minute study of details, 
an ever-watchful caution, and, to crown all, consummate 
tact, the fruit of an intimate insight into men and 
character, impossible to a man in an isolated position, 
from sheer want of opportunity. 

These qualifications, however, were neither natural to 
him, nor were his circumstances such as to admit of his 
acquiring them. Truth compels me to allow that not only 
was a pastor's work unsuited to him, but that it differed 
essentially, both in character and significance, from the 
duties he had been led to undertake. Called to be a witness, 
a confessor, and an apostle, we may say of him what the 
chief of the apostles scrupled not to say of himself, that 
" he was not sent to baptize, but to preach the gospel." If, 
as will appear, he proved himself a loved and revered 
pastor to his little flock, if his memory survives to this 
hour in the cherished affections of his people, it is not the 
less true that the task to which he was summoned was 
one of personal testimony, and that his chapel, which had 
been expressly and solely founded in view of such a work, 
was really to cease with his own labours. 

The leading difference between the work of a pastor and a 
missionary lies in this, that while the latter is concerned 
only with eternal truths and absolute facts, the former is for 



EVILS OF THE "ROTATION" SYSTEM. 135 



ever being associated with up-springing interests, and hence 
is called npon to exhibit a capacity for devoting himself, 
without neglect of higher duties, to the thousand various 
contingencies which they involve. This was very far from 
his gift. Looking at everything from the most serious 
point of view, tracing each offence, not to its secondary or 
accidental source, but to those abstract principles which his 
spirit so rapidly divined, and the issues of which he so 
vividly apprehended, it was too probable that with him every 
act of heedlessness would be a crime, every unenlightened 
sentiment a heresy, every opposition to his personal influ- 
ence a flat rebellion against his ministerial office. 

Still, there is one characteristic of the pastoral office, as 
it exists in Geneva up to the present day, which may serve 
to throw light upon his compliance with the wishes of his 
congregation. I refer to that custom of a rotation of 
preachers in the town churches, which has so often 
arrested the attention of chance visitors. 

In Geneva the pastors of the National Church preach, 
in due succession, in each of the city pulpits. Thus the 
town is in the position of one large parish, with seA^eral 
ministers. The result is that, though certainly the poor 
and the young are looked after to a greater extent than 
generally prevails, as far as the religious life in individuals 
is concerned, the system works indifferently. Those per- 
sonal and sustained relations which should exist between 
a minister and the separate members of his flock are lost 
sight of, in the absence of that uniting influence which 
leads those who hear the same pastor, Sunday after 
Sunday, to regard themselves as parts of a special re- 
ligious community. 



136 



LIFE OF CAESAB MALAK 



Possibly it was owing to this that, in the country where 
each Church had its own pastor, dissent failed to gain 
ground. This, too, even more than the special circum- 
stances which troubled it in 1830, may serve to explain 
how the Church of Testimony was arrested in its progres- 
sive career. It was at that time that the district in 
which it stood was formed by the Venerable Assembly into 
a separate parish, and furnished with a resident minister. 

And yet, however correct these various conjectures may 
be, and however indisputable the fact that my father 
became a pastor, more from special circumstances than 
in consequence of what would have been a decided voca- 
tion to that particular office, it must, nevertheless, be 
acknowledged that although he fulfilled pastoral duties 
towards a congregation of some magnitude only for the 
space of six years, he discharged the obligations of his 
office, to the very end of his life, with the utmost perse- 
verance and conscientiousness. 

I have before me a private register from the year 1825 
to November 1863, when he preached for the last time. 
It is entitled, " Transactions du Troupeau et de la 
Diaconie de l'Eglise." Here we find set down, his admis- 
sions of catechumens, the receptions or retirements, and 
sometimes even the expulsion of members, with a list of 
baptisms and marriages. It is written in his own hand, 
and, till 1830 especially, Sunday after Sunday. Up to 
that period it appeared like a record of the deliberations 
of a self-governing community, after which it resembled 
more the personal notes of the ruler of a Church. On the 
the first page, dated February 1825, we find the question 
to be answered by every candidate for admission : " Are 



ONE BODY. 



137 



you convinced, from the Word of God, that yon ought to 
separate yourself unreservedly from the Church of the 
multitude ; and are you really doing it ? " 

In spite of its smallness, this little community escaped 
those contracted views which too often prove the bane of 
isolated' congregations. It is only right to say that, amongst 
all the dissenting communions around, it was pre-eminently 
conspicuous for the catholicity of its spirit. 

Always at peace within itself, and, thanks to the clear 
teaching and elevated spirit of its pastor, enjoying a happy 
immunity from those intestine divisions with which other 
communities were visited, it displayed genuine spiritual 
life and practical consistency. Though composed of some 
amongst the poorest classes, the frequent collections for 
any special cause, or for general evangelical purposes, sur- 
passed, in amount, the highest expectations of its pastor. 
Then, too, the .destitute were carefully looked after. It 
supported schools, and made itself acquainted more or 
less directly with such occurrences among its individual 
members as called for peculiar sympathy or prayer. 
Thus it was, in the fullest sense of the term, a large 
spiritual family, thoroughly pervaded by mutual intimacy, 
— those who composed it living near one another, and 
meeting one another, Sunday after Sunday, in the quiet 
and pleasant garden, and in the chapel where he who 
ministered was at once their pastor and their friend. 

Apropos of the above, we may say of this little com- 
munity that, like other separate congregations which had 
arisen out of the first revival, it was essentially personal 
in its character; in other words, both in its origin and con- 
struction, it was the creation of an individual influence. 



138 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



Not that we are to infer from this that it lacked in- 
dependent life. Its pastor, not contented with urging it 
to separate action, insisted most emphatically on the general 
principle, that a Church is nothing more than a body of 
Christians fortuitously associated for mutual edification; 
so that the fact of being admitted into it does not make 
any one a Christian. This proposition was as distinctly 
opposed to the theory of the divine right of ministers, 
with which my father was credited, as to that of the divine 
institution of the Church visible, which had also been 
asserted around him. 

Agreeably with this, he held excommunication to be 
nothing more than a matter of external discipline, and to 
be no exclusion from the spiritual body. Admission to the 
Lord's Supper, moreover, and admission to the Church, he 
kept carefully distinct. Hence he prevailed upon his 
people to resolve (in 1827) that young people should not 
become members of the Church but on their written appli- 
cation, and after they had been communicants a whole 
year. The fact is, that refusals of admission were deter- 
mined by reasons in no way affecting Christian character. 
For example, in 1825 the Church decided not to receive a 
husband or a wife, whose partner in either case remained 
a member of another congregation; and, in 1826, any 
applicants whose affairs were in confusion or who had not 
paid their debts., Eemissness in Sabbath observance was 
also a plea of exclusion. We may observe that this dis- 
cipline was by no means due to the pastor alone ; on the 
contrary, his influence was often exerted to moderate the 
extreme rigour which some of the brethren were disposed 
to exhibit (as for example, on the Sunday question). 



ATTACKS FROM WITHOUT. 139 



To these details, we may add that the community 
nominated the deacons, who had to present a report, signed 
by the minister and themselves. It also voted the regula- 
tion of admission or exclusion; to it were addressed all 
letters from other Churches, or from private individuals. 
It sent out evangelists, and nominated a committee of 
home missions, and finally set apart for observance special 
fasts and festivals. 

Such was the state of things from 1825 to 1830, as shown 
by the register to which I have referred. It is impossible 
to read its pages without deep interest, and a passing 
regret that so important a movement was on so small a 
scale ; more particularly that the powerful originality, the 
incessant activity, and the talents of its leader were so 
often involuntarily exercised on insignificant trifles, or in 
repelling personal attacks, directed from without, against 
the character and authority of his ministry. 

From such a regret, however, my father was altogether 
free. Though, more particularly towards the end of his 
life, his position became oppressive, as he keenly realised 
his isolation ; though he felt by degrees that his congrega- 
tion must necessarily dissolve at his death, he never shrank 
from his work. Now that he is gone, we to whom he min- 
istered can see the wisdom of God in not suffering a Church 
which had originated under His divine blessing, out of the 
living faith of its pastor, to degenerate into a sectarian 
community, with nothing but the old name retained. We 
feel, how often, where the human element creeps in, it 
tends to expel the presence of that blessed Spirit, likened, 
in all His operations, to the wind " blowing as it lists." 

But to return to the time when the little chapel was 



HO LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



still flourishing, and when its pastor, in the full maturity 
of his talents, took care to make it participate in all the 
work of his ministry. Whenever he set out on a mission 
tour he asked the prayers of his congregation, and on his 
return related to them anything that might interest or 
edify. He invited them to participate in the joys and 
sorrows of those amongst its numbers who wished him to 
do so, and was wont even, with his characteristic simplicity 
and kindliness, to announce any special occurrence in his 
own family leading him to ask for their intercessions. He 
asked them to be present at marriages or baptisms, or on 
the occasion of the admission of young members, who were 
always expected to make public profession of their faith, 
or at the ordination of ministers — a not uncommon 
solemnity in his chapel — at which various nonconform- 
ing pastors in Geneva, and often from other countries, were 
accustomed to assist. 

Besides his own congregation, his chapel was visited by 
numerous strangers. More particularly, in the twelve 
years previous to the foundation of the Oratoire* there was 
frequently a crowded attendance, and, as the greater 
part was generally English, after he had preached in 
French, he would resume his discourse in that language. 
In those days he was many a time followed as he left the 
pulpit, so that he was occupied in incessant ministry 
throughout the day, both public and private. 

Occasionally ministers from abroad applied for his pul- 
pit, and to such of them as could not express themselves 
fluently in French, he himself acted as interpreter. We 

* The name of the chapel founded in 1830 by the Evangelical Society 
under Gaussen, Merle d'Aubigne, &c. — Note ly Translator. 



'PEACE WITHIN. 



141 



shall have occasion, by and by, to describe a communion 
Sunday in his congregation. Thus his life, and that of his 
Church, came into mutual contact in a thousand ways, and 
that by an influence as simply exercised as it was freely 
accepted ; so that his ministry, especially up to 1830, would 
have been eminently peaceable but for the collisions with 
the seceding communion, whose formation had preceded 
that of his own congregation at a considerable interval. 
Surrounded by simple-minded people who owed to his 
ministrations all the spiritual light which they sought ever 
to increase at his hands, esteemed as everything to them, 
in not merely furnishing them with a place of worship, but 
with the very instruction and exhortation they desired, 
even with the very hymns in which they celebrated the 
praises of God, it would seem that he was destined to con- 
tinue with them to the end, their beloved and revered pastor. 

Never did a note of discord make itself heard within 
the community. His influence was too overwhelming, the 
veneration which hedged him in too profound, to admit of 
any opposition to his ministry arising from among his own 
people.* 

* A word here respecting the pecuniary advantages which my father 
derived from his congregation, a matter about which much misrepresenta- 
tion has taken place. At first such a question was not even entertained. 
A little before 1830, however, a friend of his, a Vaudois clergyman, hap- 
pening to visit him, spoke to the members of the congregation and to 
my father himself of the necessity, on many accounts, of their presenting 
him with a salary. That visit decided the arrangement, which was kept 
up for about fifteen years. The sum, at first collected by the deacons, and 
afterwards deposited (as successive members desired to contribute) in a 
church box, labelled, "for the ministry of the chapel," amounted, on an 
average, to 500f. a year, or £20. These details were procured by the 
author from one of the surviving deacons of the Church, a man well known 
in the congregation, and who helped Malan in his ministry nearly from its 
commencement. 



142 



LIFE OF CjESAR MALAK 



But outside it was different. The Church of the Bourg 
de Four, more especially, distinguished by religious indi- 
vidualism, and indisposed to bow to its own pastors, was 
not likely to bow to him. And hence it came to pass 
that in its occasional interchanges with Malan's congrega- 
tion, it often seemed to forget that the pastor of that 
congregation was the very man whose courage and con- 
stancy had once received so much of their applause. 

To Malan himself, however much he might desire it, a 
complete fusion with his brethren was simply impossible, 
partly from the indeflniteness of their views on the doc- 
trines of grace, partly from certain Baptist tendencies 
which sprang up amongst them. To this must be added, 
on their side, all those discussions concerning the constitu- 
tion and government of a religious community, which, in- 
asmuch as they necessarily, especially in so reduced a 
sphere, involved personal questions, could not fail to mix 
up bitter dissensions with what ought to have merely 
given rise to a distinction between the two communities. 
At that fact of a distinction my father wished them to 
stop. Even when he found himself obliged to constitute a 
separate Church, its external regulation never appeared to 
him of primary importance ; nor did it involve in his 
eyes a question of dogma. From the very beginning he 
handled all such matters in the most liberal spirit, reserv- 
ing the widest possible margin for difference of sentiment, 
and adaptation to the peculiar circumstances of each 
Church. While Establishment men and dissenters around 
him were wrangling about things essentially external; 
while, especially, (at the time of which we are speaking, 
1824-1825), the congregation of the Bourg de Four was 



THE CHURCH OF THE BOURG EE FOUR. 



143 



confounding visible with spiritual unity, he did not hesi- 
tate to affirm what M. Bost repeated afterwards, that 
"invisible agreement amid visible disagreements was the 
constant law of the kingdom of God." High as were the 
views he held of the dignity of the pastoral office, he never 
could regard the Church external as directly and expressly 
constituted and ordained from above. Hence arose the 
difficulties which beset him in his relations with the Bourg 
de Tour. 

Admitting the inexpediency of setting down here the 
details of this quasi-collision, it will be desirable to glance 
at them sufficiently to show the special line my father 
took, and the spirit which animated his flock. The sub- 
jects which led to the disagreements were purely passing 
questions, such as cannot fail even now to present them- 
selves to the consideration of the Churches in proportion 
as they diverge from the path of old traditions, while it is 
to be remarked that all modern ecclesiastical progress is 
invariably in that direction. 

But, in order clearly to understand the point, it may be 
as well to refer to the position of the Church of the 
Bourg de Four at the time of which we are speaking. 

Anxious, above everything, to cultivate intimate relations 
with their brethren in the faith, the members of this con- 
gregation were penetrated by a peculiar dread of isolation, 
or, as they termed it, sectarianism. This is evident from 
an "expose," addressed by their pastors in October 1825, 
« to aU the Churches of Christ." 

After recalling the truth that there is " one fold and one 
shepherd," they went on to show how each minister was 
not the shepherd; but the mere servant of his flock. They 



Hi 



LIFE OF CJESAPb MALAK 



then went on to say that each separate Church was but a 
portion of the fold of J esns Christ. Each sheep, they argued, 
belonged to the general fold, and not to that particular 
portion of it where the shepherd might have placed him. 
This led to the obvious conclusion that no sheep could 
submit himself to one under shepherd exclusively ; and 
that, on the other hand, all faithful shepherds should hold 
themselves, in a measure, responsible to give spiritual 
nurture to all sheep in the universal fold. 

Under the influence of these opinions the Church of the 
Bourg de Four published a rule by which it declared that 
every believer, communicating in its chapel, was bound to 
submit himself to all that Scripture teaches in reference to 
the mutual relation between pastors and flocks ; in other 
words, that every one who took the communion in that 
congregation was expected to bow to the pastoral authority 
of its special conductors. 

On receiving this singular declaration, Malan's con^re- 
gation responded by a letter the length of which compels 
me reluctantly to quote it only in part. Setting forth 
their high esteem for the pastors of the other Church, the 
members of the Pre l'Eveque express their regret that, 
by the declaration come to hand, they are virtually pre- 
cluded from communicating henceforth, as they had fre- 
quently done, in the Bourg de Four, inasmuch as to do 
so, according to the terms of that declaration, would 
require them to withdraw themselves from the care of 
their own minister, to be presided over by one of the 
sister community. 

" To show you," says the letter, " that we greatly regret 
the necessity to which your rule has reduced us, we 



UNITY IN DIVERSITY. 



145 



prayerfully invite yon, in the Name of the Lord, to come 
amongst us, and communicate with us as often as oppor- 
tunity offers. "We assure you that, by so receiving you, 
we should place no yoke on your necks ; that it would be 
far from our thought that, by fraternising with us, you 
would come under our pastor's authority. So come, dear 
brethren, for we interpose no hindrance. Be present with 
us at the table of the same Lord. You prevent us from 
coming to you, but since the same difficulties do not pre- 
sent themselves in our case, rejoice our hearts by your 
presence." 

In addition to this letter, my father wrote himself to 
the pastors of the sister congregations. 

In this letter he enters into a full justification of the 
reply forwarded by his people. I need quote but one 
sentence, in which he censures the idea " that a national 
Church is the world, or that any one, in taking the com- 
munion in such a church, would, by that act alone, fail in 
his duty as a child of God." All this, however, he laid 
down in detail in an essay called u Unity in Diversity," 
which, though it was printed by him at the time, unhappily 
was never circulated. 

Distinguishing at the outset between the inward and 
spiritual, and outward and visible Church, he declares that 
essential unity can co-exist with external diversity. He 
then goes on to obviate all confusion of ideas, to which 
such theories may have given rise: 1. As to the visible 
unity of the universal Church ; 2. As to the mutual atti- 
tude of separate Churches; 3. As to the pastoral duties 
and authority. 

On the first point he remarks : " As for the unity of the 

K 



146 



LIFE OF CJSSAB MALAK 



Church, it appears to me that the Saviour's kingdom is not 
of this world ; that is, is not visible. In a spiritual sense 
the Lord Jesus is the sole Shepherd of the flock. But as 
far as earthly and temporal circumstances are concerned, 
does He show Himself in that capacity ? Even at the 
Millennium will He appear as a visible Shepherd ? I do 
not think so. Hence He calls Himself Supreme Bishop 
and Pastor, implying that He has others under Him, 
whose flocks should submit themselves to an administra- 
tion adapted to their peculiar wants and circumstances. 

St Paul, dwelling upon this point in a letter to two 
temporal shepherds, recalls to their minds, not the great 
. abstract principles of ecclesiastical discipline, but the parti- 
cular instructions they had received from his own life. That 
over-ruling Providence, wonderful in counsel, and infinite 
in resource, settles for such and such souls the discipline 
best adapted to their condition : nor does He work other- 
wise in the general body, wherever represented and however 
characterised. Whilst the sheep feed in different pastures, 
and are nourished up unto God's kingdom and glory, the 
great fold is preparing above ; that fold is the city of God, 
the new Jerusalem. 

With regard to the second point, he found that this want 
of distinction between the temporal and spiritual element 
in the Church had the effect of preventing those he was 
addressing from arriving at a fair estimate of the mutual 
relation subsisting between visible communions, inas- 
much as it led them to conclude that the pastors of any 
special congregation were pastors of the Church collectively, 
as soon as the whole Church was in spiritual communion 
with that single body. He then shows them how by such 



THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 



147 



a theory they mix up general and strictly pastoral dis- 
cipline. 

" Of course/' he adds, " it would be most desirable to see 
Churches united in discipline as well as faith, so long as 
they continued true to the gospel they professed. But 
such uniformity does not exist, and we must allow that 
the Chief Shepherd of the flock can give His own reasons 
of infinite wisdom for dispensing with it. Nor can we 
doubt that He approves of this external diversity, since 
He owns and prospers communions differing materially in 
mere externals. Yours is a proof of the truth of this. I 
know that it has been abundantly blessed ; but then the 
same is true of others also." 

" The greatest Church privilege," he resumes, — and the 
word is characteristic from his point of view, — " is the 
spiritual guidance which the pastoral office provides; all 
other benefits fall infinitely short of this, — to be under the 
discipline of the Lord Himself, to be taught, reproved, 
corrected, and instructed in righteousness by men of God, 
to whom He has entrusted this solemn charge." Then, as 
a proof that this statement in no way exhibited a sectarian 
spirit, he supposes that there would be in Geneva three or 
four other faithful Churches, national or independent, and 
professing the same faith as his own. A stranger passing 
through the city, and communicating in all of these, could 
scarcely be held to be a member of each. Otherwise, to 
which of them would he belong, in points wherein they 
differed from one another ; as, for instance, baptism ? 

From this he passes on to the third point relating to the 
pastoral charge. " Of course, most honoured brethren, 
particular Churches are mere sections of the universal 



us 



LIFE OF QJESAB MALAN. 



Church, but, I think each flock should have its own shep- 
herd, who should call in assistance, such as the Diaconate 
furnishes, chosen by the Church for its temporal govern- 
ment." Observing that each of the seven Churches of 
Asia received separate and special instructions, he argues 
the solemn responsibility laid on Christian ministers to 
guard the truth committed to them, of which they will 
have to give account. 

He undertakes to demonstrate that as each individual 
soul has its own separate needs, the pastor could not ex- 
ercise his office satisfactorily, in utter ignorance of these 
personal details. Touching the pastoral authority, he 
quotes the direction to a bishop to employ in the govern- 
ment of the Church of God that careful administration 
which he would exercise in his own household (1 Tim. 
iii. 4.) As each family has its Head, so should it be 
with every flock; and we may rest assured that He Who 
has been appointed over His own spiritual house — that is, 
the Son of God — will ever be found distributing to separate 
pastors such wisdom and prudence as shall tend, in their 
manifestation, to the honour and praise of God. 

Thus, it will appear, that in the Church, the spiritual 
and the temporal, the duties of ministers and the office of 
pastors must never be confounded. Nor must we confine 
ourselves to seeing, on the one hand, only the invisible 
kingdom of the Lord Jesus, as established by His Spirit in 
the hearts of believers ; or, on the other, a mere system of 
scientific evangelical lore ; neglecting, meanwhile, " that 
personal and progressive application which bears upon the 
everyday life of the people of God." 

He then glanced at the practical impossibility of sub- 



ONE LORD. 



jecting one Church to the rule of many pastors. " From 
the autocrat who sways the destinies of an empire to the 
humble swain who has but a few goats to look after, all 
power proceeds from the only true absolute Source of 
Power, and Who, in the eternity of His resources, and the 
wisdom of His appliances, governs the whole creation, not 
only in a grandly comprehensive sense, but in respect of 
its minutest details. But it is clear that over this vast 
concourse of powers or inferior agencies there cannot 
be two supreme wills in exercise at one and the same 
time. Find me a kingdom, or a province, a society, or a 
household, with two absolute heads, and you would pro- 
duce a mere human anomaly, and not a divine economy. 
And, even should you succeed, you would soon ascertain 
that, after all, there was but one positive Head, one will 
for every effect produced ; that the really higher cause 
was virtually acquiesced in by the others, or, in other 
words, existed alone. 

" To say that any congregation not refusing to admit 
the governance of many pastors is a sect, is to affix that 
stigma to the congregations of those faithful and renowned 
Churches which God has planted in England, Scotland, 
Ireland, Trance, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, through- 
out America, in Asia and Africa ; all which maintain and 
teach that a Church which has many flocks has as many 
pastors as flocks. So stands the case, for example, with the 
Presbyterian Church of Geneva, or with that of France." 
He concludes by examining one by one the Scripture 
passages quoted against him. 

I thought it desirable to give this long extract, because 
Malan has been credited with extreme narrow-mindedness 



150 



LIFE OF C^FSAB MALAN. 



in reference to trie entire dispute. Tor my own part, as I 
glance at the piety, moderation, and (once admit the idea 
of the Church common to both parties) the conclusiveness 
of his arguments, I cannot help recalling Noeff's letter on 
the same subject, and regretting once more that two men 
so well adapted for understanding each other, had been 
separated by the aversion Noeff entertained to my father's 
method of preaching election. 

As we shall see, no alteration took place in my father's 
views of the question. If he appeared to waive them on 
certain occasions,— as, for example, when in 1827, as he was 
starting on a missionary journey, he recommended his flock 
to abstain from worshipping in the National Church, — the 
reasons he gave prove that it was not the constitution of 
the Establishment that he objected to, but its erroneous 
teaching. These principles explain the position he alone, 
of all the dissenting ministers, took with reference to the 
question of separation between Church and State, as well as 
his attitude towards the Tree Church of Scotland, and also 
the Evangelical Church which was established in Geneva 
in 1849. On these different occasions, while entirely 
sympathising with his brethren, he invariably postponed to 
the right of private judgment and independence of individual 
members, the desire to identify a more visible conformity 
with that true and essential unity which the truth creates. 

Eef erring only to the period antecedent to 1830, this dis- 
agreement on ecclesiastical points rendered it increasingly 
hopeless for him to attempt to come to a thorough union 
with his dissenting brethren round him. 

Not only did he deeply regret that estrangement, but it 
also involved him in much misrepresentation. Yet, though 



SUMMING UP. 



151 



lie was known to lament this among his private friends, he 
was never heard to recriminate. It was not till after he 
died, that I met with documents which put the matter in 
its proper light. As I read them, they conjured up before 
me, with regard to the relation existing between my father 
and the leaders on the opposite side, the unhappy spectacle 
of an enthusiastic and generous man, a stranger to every 
species of dissimulation and suspicion, encountering minds 
too often unable to understand him, and hearts that could 
seldom rise to the level of his feelings. As far as he was 
concerned, he seems to me to have been too little able to 
place himself in the position of those whose judgments he 
too keenly resented. In his dealings with his " beloved 
brethren," as he continually calls them, he appeared never 
to have been able to unite with the harmlessness of the 
dove, which all recognised in his bearing, that wisdom of 
the serpent which the heavenly Master no less enjoins. 

As has been already said, it would be better to avoid 
dwelling longer on debates in which both sides appeared to 
give to the questions at issue an exaggerated importance. 
Unquestionably, there were not wanting those who were 
ready to attribute to individual bias an opposition naturally 
arising from an essential divergence in first principles. On 
the one hand, it would have been well to have seen in the 
* brethren," not the spirit of this world, which had been so 
loudly repudiated, with its polished fashions and plausible 
forms, but of another, its superior even in this special 
respect ; while, on the other hand, the truth might have 
been more constantly remembered, that this better world, 
instead of being promised to the faithful below, is part of 
that future which all are taught to expect. From the 



152 



LIFE OF C^SAR MALAN. 



moment any one made a distinct profession, lie was expected 
to exhibit in fullest development all the crowning graces 
of ideal Christianity. This was to forget that the Com- 
munion of Saints is a thing of faith, as well as of sight ; 
and that Christ's kingdom is not, and cannot be, of this 
world. 

Considerations like the above may serve to explain the 
spirit and attitude of the congregation in the Bourg de 
Four. Starting into life in 1817, eight years before the 
community in the Pre l'Eveque was established, my 
father's act in preferring a congregation of his own to 
union with them was openly attributed to a sectarian and 
schismatical spirit. This judgment they supported by a 
declaration of ecclesiastical principles, published in 1825. 
Although they freely withdrew it three years afterwards, 
they did not scruple to return the decided refusal which 
my father, (not as a Christian brother, but in his capacity 
as the conductor of a distinct congregation,) opposed to 
their desire of external unity, by attacks aimed not only 
at his public ministry, but even at his private character. 

I have before me a lengthy memoir, in which, setting 
aside all private and personal questions, he reviews his 
public life from 1818, with the object of refuting these 
accusations. He brings before those to whom he is writ- 
ing the numerous proofs he had given them from the very 
first, of his brotherly spirit, and explains at the same time 
the real character of the question on which they split. 
The address is quiet, dignified, and affectionate. I will 
confine myself to one extract, illustrative of what has been 
already said as to his views on the necessity for separate 
communions. 



FOLLOWING PEACE. 



153 



In connection with the opinion which had been put 
forth that one Church was sufficient for a town, he says, 
" It is by no means reasoning soundly in the interests of 
Church constitution and discipline to urge that we ought 
to reproduce a servile imitation of the Primitive Church, 
since, in laying down such a principle, we suffer ourselves 
to be led by the Church instead of by the Spirit of God. 
That Divine Teacher, Whose infinite wisdom adapts itself 
to all the phases of varying conditions, while He has given, 
in the letters to Timothy and Titus, endless directions for 
the ministers of God, can vouchsafe to us and our flocks 
like holy guidance, suggesting, directing, or deciding, 
both with reference to their peculiar and special wants, 
and to the greater advancement of the cause of the gospel, 
in the presence of various particular circumstances." 

Elsewhere he makes earnest appeal to the fraternal 
spirit of those to whom he is writing, by reminding them 
that they had replied to the letter from his congregation, 
referred to above, with the utmost wisdom and charity; 
and recalling the circumstance that, in 1827 and 1828, the 
two bodies had frequently communicated together, and the 
pastors exchanged pulpits. 

He regrets that divisions should have transpired 
between them, while the explanations which he adds show 
that his chief offences consisted in his using his academical 
title of doctor in theology, his wearing his bachelor's gown 
in the pulpit, or rather, as it was called, his preacher's 
robe, but, above all, the absolute independence which he 
claimed for himself and his special work. 

The very fact that he was thus assailed, gave a pro- 
minence to himself and everything connected with him, 



154 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



which could not fail to be in a measure irksome to his 
flock 

Meanwhile his work continued to prosper. Not only, 
especially after 1827, did the attendance of strangers at his 
chapel become very considerable ; but, in March 1830, the 
congregation w T as forced to take into consideration the 
expediency of erecting a second building elsewhere for its 
regular members, now too numerous to be accommodated 
in the Pre l'Eveque. 

All this could not but revive either the susceptibilities or 
the scruples of the sister Church. Taken up with their 
ecclesiastical views, they saw, in an ordinary illustration 
of the law of progress, the advancing shade of arrogance, 
and premeditated priestly despotism. Especially at a time 
when, in the religious as well as in the political world, the 
very semblance of authority was apt to raise a cry, (French 
Eevolution of 1830,) such an accusation needed only 
to be hinted at to find eager acceptance. We cannot 
wonder, therefore, at its having spread by degrees amongst 
the members of the congregation of the Pre l'Eveque, 
whose community had so long been characterised by the 
peace it enjoyed. 

In May 1830, my father, perceiving signs of uneasiness 
in many members of his flock, appealed to them generally 
for a vote of confidence. True to himself, he grounded his 
application, not on the claims of his ministry, but the sound- 
ness of his teaching ; taking care, at the same time, in his 
conscientious uprightness, to present them with a summary 
of it, most explicitly worded. Thus he transformed his 
Church into a theological council. The result might easily 
have been anticipated. Even those who were capable of 



FORSAKEN. 



155 



following their pastor into the field of dogmatic theology, 
did not fail to detect, when they arrived there, matter for 
scruple. The majority denied his right to impose upon 
them officially the faith which they held spontaneously, 
and thus the most advanced and the most independent of 
his adherents withdrew from the Church. It lost about a 
third of its members, who went over forthwith to the Bourg 
de Four. 

This secession has been occasionally represented as the 
consequence of the pride of success, which my father is 
said to have displayed. This was the opinion taken up by 
Dr Ostertag of Bale, in the truthful and touching notice of 
Malan, which he published. He would have found in this 
dogmatism, which he so justly appreciated, a more satisfac- 
tory explanation of facts which he could only have appre- 
hended but by report. 

The truth is that my father, in his dealings with his 
church, had no choice but to exercise an influence heartily 
acknowledged ; still further, that in the zealous and loving 
discharge of the duties which a trusting people had laid 
upon him, there was nothing to give rise either to pride or 
ambition in a man of his parts. On the contrary — and 
here my testimony merits acceptance — no one was less of a 
despot than he, if by despotism we understand, as we 
ought, not the absorbing influence exercised involuntarily 
by a superior mind, but that pedantic and restless tyranny 
which asserts itself by gratuitous assaults on the rights 
and feelings of those it seeks to rule* To confine myself, 

* To a person who consulted him on a point of ecclesiastical polity, he 
writes in 1828 : — " Why address yourself to any other but our gracious 
Lord, in order to know His will about these questions. Could I ever have 
that authority over your conscience which belongs only to God ?" 



156 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAK 



however, to the case before us. Nothing, so far as I can 
remember, (and of the incidents of May 1830 I have a 
most vivid recollection), or others whom I have questioned 
on the subject — nothing, more especially in the numerous 
documents before me referring to that time, gives the 
faintest colour to this imputation. On the contrary, every- 
thing that occurred, so far as he was concerned, tended to 
impress, and even edify, any unprejudiced person. 

That he had throughout such faults as God alone can 
be judge of, he openly acknowledged to the brethren, but 
the very frankness with which he makes his confession 
deprives his critics of the right of laying others to his 
charge. 

He writes thus (November 1830) in the " Memoir" 
already referred to, with reference to the recent incidents 
in his Church : — 

- As for these troubles, I am prepared to give account, to 
my Lord and Master of the souls committed to my charge, 
and He will have mercy on His servant. He knows 
whereof I am made ; that I am a man prone to error, to 
every species of infirmity, to every possibility of falling, 
and His compassions are from everlasting to everlasting. 
I would fall into His hands, and not into the hands of 
man. Leave me, I beseech you, in my Saviour's arms, 
and if you think that I am neither happy nor peaceful 
there — pray the more that I may realise the blessed- 
ness of His perfect peace. I have erred, I have been led 
astray, with regard to my authority. I have used it to 
abuse it. I have wronged my flock, my brethren — those 
dear to me as my own children. The eternal God, in 
His mercy, has roused me from my delusion ; He has 



DE PROFUNDIS. 



157 



anointed my eyes ; He has taken me in hand and taught 
me, and the chastisement has been applied by His fatherly 
love. The Lord's name be praised ! He has not let me 
go. He has come to my soul, and quickened it with new 
life. Had I regarded iniquity in my heart, He would not 
have heard me, but I know that He has not withdrawn 
His tender mercies from me. My humiliation is from Him, 
and He has enabled me to ask forgiveness of my brethren 
whom I have offended. I do so with all my heart and all 
my soul, and I will do so more pointedly still if for their 
satisfaction they require it." He adds, " that in all that 
had occurred no wrong had been done to those who had 
reproached him, towards whom he was conscious of no 
offence, either in thought or action." 

This will show how he condemned himself at this time. 
It will show, too, his entire freedom from bitterness as he 
thought of occurrences which could not fail to remind him, 
though from a different point of view, of his own secession 
six years before from the National Church. Subsequently, 
many of the deserters came back, and in no single case did 
the separation prove a lasting one. Soon after this the 
Evangelical Society occupied the ground which had hither- 
to been monopolised by the two congregations which had 
represented the Eevival movement in Geneva, and greatly 
diminished their importance. 

From this period (1830), although my father's congrega- 
tion continued for a considerable time to hold a marked 
place in the religious world in Geneva, it never witnessed 
a return of its former days. The secession, especially at 
the time of its occurrence, was a very painful blow to him. 
Still he did not suffer himself to despond. His pas- 



158 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



toral duties being thus considerably reduced, lie occupied 
himself with writing and evangelising (the latter a task 
for which he was eminently fitted). The records of his 
missionary efforts will now demand our attention. 

Before quitting our present subject, however, there are 
two observations to be made — 

And first, and chiefly; however deplorable some of 
the circumstances just recorded may appear, it is but fair 
to state that, even by those whose hostility was most 
openly expressed, the claims of Christian consistency were 
never utterly and finally disregarded. 

Our second remark bears upon the explanation required 
of doings so little to be expected from unaffectedly 
religious men. The truth of the matter is that, except on 
isolated occasions, the relations between the two congrega- 
tions were never cordial. Both my personal recollections, 
and an anxious study of the documents before me — giving 
a detailed history of events before and after 1830 — con- 
firm me in the opinion that the cause of these difficulties 
must be attributed to an essential discrepancy in the 
lines which each one of these two communities was 
respectively following. 

Of this my father was distinctly conscious. Ever ready 
to yield to the impulses of a truly Christian feeling of 
fraternity; prepared, too, to make advances himself; 
anxious to prove the liveliness of his esteem by an entire 
obliviousness of what had distressed him in the past, and 
by those sacrifices of his own importance to which his 
generous nature was so ready to urge him; he had to deal 
with men who, from the very fact of their inability to give 
a categorical account of the reasons of their estrangement, 



SUBJECTIVE CONTRAST. 



159 



were unhappily induced to seek them on personal grounds, 
thus interposing always a personal element in what 
ought to have been a purely abstract and independent 
difference of opinion. Meanwhile, if we reflect a little on 
the spirit which has disturbed the Church of the Bourg 
de Tour from its commencement — on the constant striv- 
ings which it has made to realise an external religious 
unity — on the Utopian schemes which it has projected 
from time to time — on the sensitive jealousy of its mem- 
bers with reference to their rights — on the extreme im- 
portance attached by them to questions of ecclesiastical 
administration ; if we go on to recall the period at which, 
after its augmentation through the secession from the 
Pre l'Eveque, it was invaded by Darbyism — we shall 
understand how, from the very beginning, its pastors have 
had to deal with that same ambitious aggressive spirit, 
that spirit of levelling — envious, and suspicious : which 
ere long revealed itself in the political life of our little 
country. 

It will be evident that it was hopeless to expect that 
one with Malan's temperament, — an ardent lover of 
symmetry and good order, a poet by nature, with a 
strong chivalrous leaning to old historical traditions and 
associations, as well as to the worship of the past, — could 
harmonise with men like these, except by an effort of 
charity ; or meet them on any other ground than that of 
Christian brotherhood. 

We may state with confidence that the primary source 
of these lamentable occurrences is to be traced to this 
opposition, invariably existing between " religious radical- 
ism " and the conservative ecclesiastical spirit which leans 



160 



LIFE OF CMBAR MALAN. 



not a little on traditional guidance. Meanwhile, it must un- 
doubtedly be admitted that the events themselves seriously 
thwarted my father's pastoral work, to which he was so en- 
tirely devoted, and occasioned no little suffering to himself. 

And yet, this story told, the relations between the two 
Churches were by no means broken off. As a proof of 
this, in 1835 a collection was made in the Chapel of 
Testimony in aid of an institute connected with the other 
congregation, while, in 1839, the two bodies communicated 
together. Gradually, however, in consequence of the in- 
roads of Darbyism, the oratory of the Evangelical Society 
became the only asylum of a ministry such as had always 
existed in Malan's congregation. 

Later on we shall discover what prevented the remnant 
of that little Church from joining that union which, under 
the one title of " the Evangelical Church," came to reunite, 
in 1849, the various dissenting Presbyterians of Geneva. 

I have thought it desirable to add to this chapter a few 
letters from my father's pastoral correspondence. Ever 
active as it was, it was one of the most conspicuous 
elements in his influence. My selection, however, will be 
limited to the following, which I deem characteristic, the 
greater part of which I have chosen from those written at 
the period just reviewed : — 

L— TO A CLERGYMAN INTERRUPTED IN HIS WORK BY A 
VISITATION OF SICKNESS. 

"March 7, 1827. 

" It is not along the easy path of health and unchecked 
obedience that the minister of Christ learns himself. In 



CORRESPONDENCE. 161 

the midst of the noble task entrusted to him, and of the 
blessings of which he is the steward to so many souls, 
nothing is easier than for him to become remiss in self- 
knowledge. You are highly favoured, brother, in being 
withdrawn into the silence of Divine teaching, that you 
may learn for yourself that true self-renunciation brings 
with it the positive and living experience of the good 
pleasure and of the life of God. When would the minister 
of the Lord understand that the work entrusted to him is 
not his own, if not when he is withdrawn from activity 
and forced to inaction ? The fisherman, sitting down to 
mend his nets, is no idler ! The faithful and tender 
Master be present with you ! May you rejoice that He 
has thus prepared you for nearer communion with Him- 
self!" 

II. — TO AN OLD FRIEND, REV. G N . 

''March 29, 1827. 

" Life is very short, and to employ the least part of it 
in deprivation of communion with God, through doubt 
and unbelief, is to forget this. Each day solemnises me 
more ; death seems to me so serious, and meeting with my 
God so near, that I abstain from forming any plans. The 
words, ' Haste Thee ! ' seem to be constantly repeated to 
me ; and I feel, in short, ' how frail I am.' I am fain to 
weep, too, over my trilling spirit and feeble devotion to 
the glorious Master I profess to serve ! 

" Serve ! Is the preaching of a gospel so sweet to pro- 
claim — serving Jesus ? The pulpit should be our resting- 
place. Our work lies in the whole conduct of the brief 
life allotted us ; that conduct should be to us a beginning 

L 



162 LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 

of heaven. Let us realise, let us realise the gospel ! "We 
are not actors on a stage, but men in life, and on the 
threshold of the unseen world. Eternity, my friend, .... 
an awful word ! What duration ! Think of the amaze- 
ment of a Christian first opening his eyes in heaven; 
while, as he takes in the reality of what he believed and 
heard, he receives into his whole soul the conception and 
the force of the word ' for ever/ 

" Let us curtail our vanities. There are plenty of them 
in the ordinary life of Christians : long conversations, long 
calls, long meals, long nothings, long hypocrisy of senti- 
ment, long talks about religion ; while, on the one hand, 
the world with its fashion is passing away ; and, on the 
other, Jesus stands at the door and knocks. 

" As for religious intelligence, I know not what to say. 
' One day at a time,' is my motto ; I am ignorant of the 
art of conjecturing." 

in. — TO A SOLDIEE AT COURT. 

" May 16, 1828. 

" My Dear Sir, — First let me say, that, as it appears to 
me, you make a great mistake in regarding your condition 
as a soldier as a hindrance to your conversion. The gospel 
of the grace of God is for all conditions ; it is calculated 
to make a monarch successful in his difficult task, and 
a workman equally so, in his obscure and far easier 
life. 

"In the condition in which you are now placed, and 
wherein your own will is in submission to that of your 
superiors, you have the very greatest facilities for learning 
obedience, and humbling that pride and self-complacency 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



163 



to which we are so prone. Your duty is, ' not to entangle 
yourself with the things of this life, that you may please 
those who have called you to be a soldier ; ' those, in short, 
whom God has placed over you, with an authority entrusted 
to them by Himself. The more attentive you are in the 
discharge of duty, even in the smallest details, the happier 
you will be, the freer from reproach. For God blesses 
order, and a. well-regulated life, wherever it is to be found ; 
and He has attached peace and temporal prosperity to the 
conscientious fulfilling of the requirements of our position. 
I invite you, then, to show yourself exemplary in your 
trust, and to neglect nothing, so that those over you may 
have a full and entire satisfaction in you. 

" For example; should you omit any portion of your duty, 
even for the reading of the Word of God, you fail to observe 
that command which calls upon you to render to all their 
dues, and to the king the king's. Now, the sovereign you 
serve has a right to receive from you the service he enjoins. 
You are in no way permitted to divert or detract even a 
minute from his time, nor to relax in any way the devotion 
which your earthly ruler requires and expects. Your 
readings, therefore, must take place at another time than 
that demanded for your duties ; nor must they ever inter- 
fere in the least degree with what you are engaged to do in 
behalf of the company in which you serve, and the honour 
of your superiors. 

" Hence it follows, my friend, that your degradation may 
have arisen from some negligence of yours, rather than 
from any hostility on the part of the authorities to the 
principles you profess ; and you may be wrong in attribut- 
ing to the reproach of Christ a chastisement with which 



164 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



God Himself has visited your unfaithfulness in yonr duty. 
Not that I can speak authoritatively on this head, ignorant 
as I am of the circumstances. I only say this, that before 
setting to the account of persecution against the Lord or 
His children any possible treatment at the hands of man, it- 
would be well for us to examine whether we are ourselves 
responsible for it, and whether we are not receiving the 
due reward of our own imprudence." 

IV. — TO A LADY, AGAINST THE ABUSE OF IMAGINATION AND 
DOGMATISM. 

" January 18, 1832. 

". . . . Observe well, whether the Lord Jesus, in His 
heavenly hidden life, is better known, is better served, by 
a doctrine. If it be so, if, in short, the soul exercised in 
these matters, is more humble, more withdrawn from fame 
and renown, more absorbed into, more intimate with heaven, 
not through speculation, but the power of spiritual life ; if 
that soul be, in a word, more clothed with Christ, and not 
with religious science, then you may conclude that it 
lives in fact with Jesus. Now the first effect of that life 
will be, or I am mistaken, not external movement, even in 
truths the most generally received in the Churches, but 
inward meditation, and inward occupation with a blessed 
immortality. Here then, are my directions, dear sister; 
the Holy Spirit can, if He deems them right, make use of 
them for your good ; and if I have not spoken according to 
the word, He can no less remove their impression, that 
your soul may not suffer from my counsel. 

"You complain that you have little joy in com- 
munion with your Lord. Unquestionably the cause of 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



165 



this is to be found in ourselves : either in our want of 
honest watchfulness, or of thorough belief that God really 
loves us, or of attentive study of the full scope of His 
promises in His Word. Our hearts are dull, they would 
fain enjoy surrounding things ; and, since our imagination 
lives too frequently in fictitious excitements and illusions, 
the solemn and holy reality of faith, of the love of an 
invisible God, enchains us but little, as being too severe 
for our nature. It is very necessary to learn this, and to 
combat it honestly, with habitual prayer, and a solemn 
vow before God to banish all imaginations and reveries, 
whencesoever they may arise, and to substitute for them 
meditation on Himself; for this sincerity is needed. 

" If you love little, let your soul cheer itself with the 
bliss of being loved. Here, there is no room for doubt ; 
for what a love is that which the Saviour feels !" 

V. — TO HIS CHURCH, ON THE SPRINGS OF SANCTIFICATION 
IN THE SOUL. 

"June 14, 1832. 

" We journey together through the world, drawing daily 
nearer to death, and to that solemn moment when faith 
will be exchanged for sight, when we shall cease to learn, 
when there will be no more error, no more delusion, no 
more temptation, no more sin. God has caused us to know 
the mystery of His love towards us. It is for us to glorify 
Him with the adoration and humble trust of reconciled 
children, to whom their father has forgiven everything, and 
whom He is leading tenderly by the hand to the paternal 
home, where He will cause them to know all His love. 

" Wherefore, dear friends in the Lord, learn well what 



1G6 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



should "be the issue of such assurance. Has God done 
these great things ? has He smitten, has He sacrificed, His 
Only Begotten ? Has He raised Him up again, only that 
His elect may be delivered from condemnation ; and that, 
by believing this, they may rejoice together at freedom 
from the fear of hell ? Bather, is it not that God has pre- 
pared and called unto Himself a peculiar people, that they 
may, first of all, declare His praises here, and that they 
may, hereafter dwell, for ever in heaven — living monu- 
ments of His grace and glory ? We are raised from 
the dead, my brethren ! Our soul participates in the first 
resurrection ; the life that we now live in the flesh we live 
by faith in J esus Who has loved us ; and, for the issue, the 
aim, the accomplishment of that faith which is the image 
of God in us. In heaven it will be found true that 
it was not for our sakes that God chose us, but rather 
for Himself, to show forth His glory in us His creatures, 
the exceeding riches of His justice and goodness, and 
to manifest to the world and the powers of heaven the 
infinite wisdom and holiness of His Divine compassion. 
Hence we rob God of His right, we take from Him 
what belongs to Him, if we imagine that a chosen one 
belongs to himself, that he is at liberty to live accord- 
ing to his own will, and to content himself with 
merely ceasing to fear hell, and hoping for and expecting 
heaven. 

" Meditate on these things, my dear flock, whom I am 
called to nourish in the truth, ancl for whom I shall have 
to give account to my Master. Think seriously, you who 
are in Christ, on that life in Christ which you ought to 
live. And how will you say, one day, that your life has 



WEEPING WITH THEM THAT WEEP. 167 



been lived, according to the life of Christ, if Christ has not 
dwelt in the details, the constituents of that life ; if your 
own desires, your own thoughts, your own wisdom, your 
own interests, your own glory, your own ease, have been 
the mainspring of your actions. If this has been the case 
from minute to minute, from hour to hour, without a 
thought of Christ or His word, without the influence of 
His Spirit, how will you be able even to suppose hereafter 
that you have lived in Christ V 

vi. — written in 1838, in his own name and in the 
name of his congregation, to certain seceding 
churches at that time passing through a period 
op persecution.* 

" Dear and Honoured Brethren in Jesus Christ — 
our Life, our Strength, our Hope ! 

" We have experienced in your affliction, from the day 
we heard of it, the truth that we are one body in Christ, 
and, through His Spirit, members one of another. The 
trials that you have had to encounter, and which you are 
still enduring, in the upholding of your faith, are no strange 
thing to us, seeing that it has already been our privilege to 
receive unrighteous dealing from the world, with the weight 
of its scorn, for the name of the Lord Jesus. Moreover, 
even before your brotherly love had solicited us to humble 
ourselves with you, we had been led, of the Lord, to re- 
member you before Him in the closest fellowship of prayer. 
It was needful for us to unite with you in His gracious 
presence, Who, if He visits and judges His own House, 

* I am sorry I cannot give it all. It is dated October 29, and addressed 
" to the Dutch Churches, suffering for the truth's sake." 



168 



LIFE OF CJESAPt MALA A 7 . 



and tries the genuineness of our faith in Him, does it only 
out of the depth of His compassions, which lie at the root 
of all His dealings, and who is afflicted in all the affliction 
of His people. 

" Undoubtedly, dear and honoured brethren, the path of 
renunciation, of sacrifice, and of persecution, which you have 
now for a long time been traversing, is hard to tread. To 
be oppressed, to be spoiled of our goods, imprisoned, driven 
from our home, esteemed as evil, denounced as accursed by 
stern laws, is severe discipline. But what soul is there, 
really taught by the Holy Spirit, that does not know that 
it is at such a time that the Holy Son of God vouchsafes 
His mighty consolation ? 

" And even, beloved brethren, supposing that this were 
not the case, that the Lord were to wait for another season 
to comfort your hearts, it would never be for a long time 
that you would have to endure the trial of your faith. 
Were you in prosperity, your life would be what it always 
is, short, swift, soon over. Passing it in affliction, you 
pass it with the same Lord as then, and under the same 
conditions ; in other words, as strangers and foreigners, as 
pilgrims to the celestial country, to the Home whither 
Jesus has preceded you, and where He will receive you to 
His glorious repose. 

" To Him, then, we would have each of you cling through 
this painful struggle. It is easy, beloved, when we are 
engaged in a fight — even in the good and holy fight of 
faith — and when we are called upon to contend earnestly 
for the sacred depository of truth, it is only too easy then 
to deceive ourselves, by taking the externals of belief for 
faith itself, the honour of the Church for truth, Church 



LOVING COUNSEL. 



169 



principles for Jesus Himself. How many persons pro- 
fess to follow the teaching of the Word, and yet, at a 
time when they ought to be exhibiting a firm consistency, 
become estranged from the heart of Jesus, and forget, even 
outrage, the spirit of love, while they are displaying at the 
same time the most devoted zeal, and submitting to the 
most costly sacrifices ! What an injury it is to the good 
work of faith when the children of God commit the fatal 
error of putting their Church in the place of the spouse of 
J esus ; and fidelity to it, for that obedience which faith owes 
to the King of Zion. 

" Be on your guard, then, dear and honoured brethren, 
and cherish, as your deepest and most abiding feeling, a 
humble desire to follow Jesus, and to exalt Him, and not 
yourselves, in your Churches. 

"Alas, beloved brethren, it is because we ourselves at 
Geneva, and others in other parts of Switzerland, have 
sinned a sin still in this respect, that we speak thus. 
Let the sword of persecution be in the hands of the world, 
never of the brethren. Never let differences of views or 
opinions in what does not appertain to Christ Himself, 
separate the members of His Body. We have learnt that 
this evil has reached you. Alas, if we, the children of 
God, were more penetrated with a sense of the unspeakable 
value of the Father's gift in His Son, earthly things would 
cease to have any undue influence over us. 

"Men of the world, and among them many children of 
God, weak, and still under worldly influence, stand aloof 
from you. They regard you as enemies of their Church, 
and overbearing children. They despise you, they push you 
from them, they visit you with ignominious treatment ! 



170 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



Well, be it so ! They will yet be compelled to admit, that if 
you are firm in your faitli and in the public profession you 
are justified in making, you are not the less distinguished 
for the charity which unites you in Jesus, the King of your 
souls, for your compassion for your persecutors, as well as 
for your meek submission under their iniquitous proceed- 
ings, which affect not merely yourselves as Christians, but 
even the very Christ of God. 

" May the Lord J esus see us walking in the light of His 
countenance, apart from the darkness of this wicked world, 
on the narrow path where His footsteps may be traced. 
It matters little whether we are honoured, welcomed, ap- 
proved, or upheld even, by our brethren ; but it matters 
much whether we are holy and blameless, and whether the 
light of our faith, love, and patience, burns uninterruptedly 
before the eyes of our fellow-men, and whether thus, in 
Holland, Switzerland, or elsewhere, those who know the 
Lord and rejoice in the light of His countenance, show 
forth by their steadfast and holy conversation the glories of 
Him Who has loved them in Christ Jesus with an ever- 
lasting love." 



CHAPTEE IV. 



GENEEAL SURVEY OE THE YEAES 1820-1830. 

Mine be the reverend, listening love, 

That waits all day on Thee, 
With the service- of a watchful heart, 

Which no one else can see. 
The faith that, in a hidden way 

No other eye may know, 
Finds all its daily work prepared, 

And loves to have it so. 

In the previous chapter, we traced out Malan's pastoral 
work as far as 1830. We will now retrace our steps for 
the purpose of taking a general view of his exertions 
during that period, besides his pastoral duties. As the 
narrative of his missionary efforts is to be reserved for the 
period when he was led to devote himself more especially 
to them, our present review will be chiefly directed to his 
literary labours. 

As we have already seen, before his conversion he 
published only two class text-books of no great importance. 
When, however, he found himself debarred from preaching, 
he felt all the stirrings of that desire to propagate the 
truth, which is so universal in the hearts of living Chris- 
tians. From that time, he sought means to reach by his 
pen those whom he was not suffered to address from the 
pulpit. Already in 1814, when what he himself calls the 



172 



LIFE OF CJESAR UAL AN. 



first dawnings of the truth were breaking in upon his soul, 
he had translated some English tracts, and shortly after- 
wards, he presented his pupils with " The Old Man of Ella- 
combe," a little book which M. Guers had just rendered in 
French, from the same language. 

It was not till 1819 that he issued his three first tracts, 
which were almost immediately translated into English, 
German, and Italian. These were, " Germain the Wood- 
cutter," " The Two Old Men," and " The Young Plaster 
Eigure Vendors." Erom that time, up to 1830, new works 
issued from his pen ; among which were some of the best 
he ever produced. To mention only a few : In 1821 ap- 
peared " The Poor Watchmaker of Geneva," and " La 
Valaisanne;" in 1823, "The Truly Catholic Protestant;" 
in 1825, "The Conversion of the Atheist;" in 1827, "The 
New Bartimaeus;" in 1829, " The Good Bargain." 

These little publications made a sensation. In 1820, 
an old magistrate of Geneva, M. Eocca, said, in an " Ad- 
dress to the Genevese," in reference to the " Poor Watch- 
maker " and " La Valaisanne : " " These two works are 
masterpieces of feeling, and often of good sense as well. 
Every line, every word is inspired by the love of virtue 
and of honest toil. They show their author to be a hero 
in goodness, and the champion of the weak." As a proof 
of the state of feeling in Geneva at that time, we may 
mention that this same authority, a few weeks after, was 
obliged to publish "Eclaircissements" of his previous address. 
While he continues to recommend the perusal of the works 
he had praised, he protests against the idea that he himself 
was a visionary, a " Momier," or a partisan of Malan, in re- 
spect of his religious views. His address, he says, had been 



DEFECTS OF STYLE. 



173 



dictated simply by Ms indignation at the way in which 
such a man had been publicly treated. It was but the ex- 
pression of a warm feeling in favour of justice and fairness. 
. Particular notices of his productions I reserve for the 
period of their issue. At present it may be as well to form 
a general estimate of his powers as a religious writer. 

Without referring to his sacred songs and school hymns, 
which have been permanently accepted in our Churches 
and families, it may be stated that his numerous prose 
works abound with pleasant pages of truthful, fresh, and 
animated writing. At the same time, he was scarcely so 
eloquent with his pen as he was in the pulpit, or in 
general conversation. 

That force of conviction which was for ever arresting 
his hearers with fresh energy, and at times all but over- 
powering them with a strange vigour, showed itself in his 
writings rather in his close method of reasoning, or in 
the persistency with which he affirms and re-affirms the 
thought he desires to express, than in that hidden power 
of persuasion, which allures and enthrals a reader's atten- 
tion. Thus, only to instance his tracts, which first gained 
him notoriety ; in many of them a prolonged elaboration, 
combined with purely abstract reasoning, following close 
upon some terse recital, betrays the preacher. The reader 
is subdued, it is true, and lays down the book in silence. 
But he is not unfrequently compelled to wonder why, 
after all, he is not convinced. 

The apostle of a faith, as clear as it is earnest, Malan's 
writings bear emphatic testimony as to what his soul 
believes, though, at the same time, he has a difficulty in 
quitting his personal experience to investigate that of 



174 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



others. Those who share his convictions will be ur^ed on 
with him to embrace all the results to which they lead. 
Those who do not, however genuine his emotion may 
appear, will probably find it unintelligible. Hence, 
it will be understood that he has been charged with 
monotony, and, occasionally, in his attempted expositions 
of the faith, with a measure of prolixity; yet, for all 
that, he has succeeded in compelling men to read his 
writings. More than that, many of his pages will never fail 
to arrest and fascinate from the powerful ever-present sin- 
cerity of a conviction full of force, freshness, and vigour* 

His style is most successful in the conversational parts, 
in his narrative, and in the striking and pointed expressions 
which constantly fall from his pen. His writings abound 
in passages which merit perpetuity, if on this ground only, 
and of which a useful and attractive collection might 
easily be made. 

He wrote often, and with great ease and despatch. His 
sermons and religious tracts procured him fame, which 

* The following extract from a letter to a lady, written before 1819, will 
give an idea of his deep love of nature at this period of his life : — 

" There are times and seasons when the soul appears to delight in sweet 
and mysterious longings. It seems as if it had lost half of its life, and 
had no interest left but for what could pine and complain along with itself. 
In such days, it likes to linger in the loneliness and profound silence of 
the country. The light wind which stirs the dried-up foliage of groves and 
hedges ; the mists slowly rising from the marshes or rivers, and gliding, in 
fantastic shapes, between the woods or the hills ; the smoke of the village 
settling down on the fields, through whose haze may be discerned the hay- 
stacks or roofs of stubble-covered cottages ; the distant, and, as it were, 
muffled tones of the bells, or the vanishing tints of the mountains already 
half covered with sleet and snow — all that external world still lovely in its 
decay, as it appears, when the Lord bids the sun to weaken the power of 
his rays — seizes, absorbs the soul, and awakens in us a kindred sympathy, 
an intimate and mysterious responsive note of stillness and sadness." 



WAYSIDE GLEANINGS. 



175 



was not diminished by his essays as a controversialist, and 
his publications dictated by passing events. As to the 
first, we have already noticed them. His controversies 
will be referred to by and by. With regard to his tracts, 
their chief merit lies in a happy delineation of character 
and manners, and in the charming anecdotes on which 
they are based. Quick and accurate in his notice of pass- 
ing things, he would not unfrequently return from a walk 
bringing with him, out of some occurrence he had noticed, 
or a chance conversation in the street, a word, a touch of 
character, a prompt reply, which he immediately noted 
down, quoting the results to us afterwards with the com- 
ment, " Here is a tract to write." Especially in his writings 
for children he abounds in these happy illustrations, secured 
at the moment they happened, sometimes in his own 
family circle. We may recognise here the painter's art t»f 
comprehending a scene at a glance, exemplified in that 
faculty of truthful and rapid apprehension no less required 
in accurate delineation of character. 

With all his earnestness of thought, rather in conse- 
quence of that earnestness, of the thirst for truth and 
symmetry which inspired him, he had a quick perception of 
incongruities, and consequently a keen sense of the ridi- 
culous. But not only was everything personal utterly 
repugnant to the habitual loftiness of his mind, but his 
thorough lovingness of spirit- made it additionally impos- 
sible for him to use this faculty by way of sarcastic or 
jesting retaliation. It was only employed in furnishing 
a picturesque style of writing which deepened the impres- 
sion of any word, trait, or gesture which he recorded. 

In his pamphlets called forth by passing events, in 



176 LIFE OF CAESAB 31 ALAN. 



which he rapidly recorded his convictions occasioned by 
any occurrence demanding, as he thought, testimony to the 
faith in the presence of the multitude, he knew and prac- 
tised the wisdom of a concise, grave, and conclusive style. 
If in this class of writing he failed to rival the incisive 
fervour of others of his brethren, he never forgot the dignity 
that declines, be the provocation what it may, to descend 
to open personalities, or even to veiled insinuations. 

On reading several of his tracts over again, after many 
years, and with reference to the present publication, I 
could not but be vividly impressed with their power. 
Writings like Germain the Woodcutter, the opening 
portion of La Yalaisanne, the beautiful story of the Con- 
verted Atheist, various passages in the Poor Clockmaker of 
Geneva, or in the Truly Catholic Protestant, not to mention 
others, deserve an extended circulation. Their simplicity 
and truth of feeling must for ever enrol them amonG; the 
standard classical specimens of this department of sacred 
literature. 

What especially distinguishes his earlier writings is that 
joyous hopeful trustfulness which we have already had 
occasion to notice in his " Conventicule de Eolle." Look- 
ing at the clerical opposition he had encountered, as a 
solitary instance of intolerance on the part of a particular 
association of teachers, he gives free vent to his benevolent 
and loving spirit towards the population itself (the mass 
of the people.) He declares that the evil seems to him to 
be already sensibly diminished. " Indeed," he acids, " an 
observing and judicious population cannot persevere in a 
course of unjust attacks. " Better natures insensibly recoil 
from them, and persuade the others. Passions calm 



LITERARY EFFORTS. 



177 



down ; groundless animosity becomes wearisome, and the 
best way of anticipating this happy climax is to persist in 
loving those who still feel it their duty to hold back, 
many of them on conscientious grounds, which, if it be a 
mistake, it is no disgrace to adhere to. I feel that we are 
on the eve of better days, and I rejoice at the prospect 
of regenerated Geneva." 

And what he wrote he felt, as appears from his letters 
to my mother during his occasional absence from home. 
Subsequent experience of many years taught him, not 
indeed to relinquish hopes dictated to him by his trust in 
God, but to content himself with their slow and partial 
realisation. 

His first works exhibit him rather in the light of a con- 
fessor than a teacher. We still find in them more a 
testimony given to the divine facts of salvation, than, as 
was the case afterwards, what seemed to aim at being an 
explanation of the reasons and motives of these facts. 
By and by, as the succeeding incidents in the struggle 
led him to examine more carefully into the grounds of his 
creed, a systematic analysis of them found a place in his 
writings. This new feature in their contents was dis- 
played, for example, in "The Eldest Son," 1825; while, in 
1826, he applied himself to a vindication of it in the tract 
entitled, "Add to Your Faith, Knowledge." 

At the same time, as we shall see, when we come to 
touch upon his Bonian controversy, he never suffered his 
dogmatic teaching to degenerate into bigotry, or what 
might have been deservedly termed the fanaticism of party 
spirit. 

I may mention, further, among his tracts published 

M 



178 



LIFE OF C'JESAPl MALAN. 



before 1830, "The Half-penny Well Employed; or, The 
Duty of Contributing to the Work of Foreign Missions 
"Home Missions," in which, in advance of his age, he 
pleads for those home efforts to which he was daily 
devoted ; " The Dead Burying their Dead " The Heathen 
at our Door," delineating under various aspects the Geneva 
of that day; "Corn Gathered on the Highway;" and, 
"What God Keeps is Well Kept:" all narratives of inci- 
dents which had occurred under his eye, or conversations 
in which he had been engaged, together with " The Blind 
Bartimaeus," a familiar exposition of the way of salvation. 

But his literary efforts did not stop here. At this time 
also he produced his " True Mend of the Young," besides 
many doctrinal works. Above all, not to mention occa- 
sional publications, the fruit of passing events, it was 
then that he produced his hymns, with appropriate tunes, 
and a versification of the first fifty Psalms. 

Before speaking of his hymns, well known in the pre- 
sent day as " Songs of Zion," it may be remarked that it 
is difficult to form any idea of the literary activity thus 
displayed, and of the place it occupied in our happy home 
life. His tracts spread by thousands, his occasional 
pamphlets were read with avidity, his hymns were every- 
where sung by Christian congregations, whether of the 
dissenting communities in Geneva, or especially abroad. 
Surrounded as he was by a numerous family, this period 
of his life was passed in overflowing health and energy. 
We, his children, were enlisted in the technical department 
of his work. Some of these numerous editions were folded 
under his own roof. He had devised and constructed a 
small machine which considerably abridged the work, and 



A LABOUR OF LOVE. 



179 



it was a high day for us when tutor and governess an- 
nounced that books were to be thrown aside, and the 
eating-room was converted into a merry workshop. 

Whilst we were busy at our toil, some one would read a 
fresh page or two, or relate how the new tract had been 
received here or there, or its contents would be discussed, 
my father all the while present, everywhere encouraging 
us in our work, the very soul of animation, good humour, 
and cheerfulness. Young friends and colporteurs came to 
fetch away the scarcely bound tracts, distributing them in 
every direction. My brothers and I helped him in making 
up large packages, to be forwarded to various quarters. 
Occasionally our task was suspended when strangers called, 
or when one of my sisters went into an adjoining room to 
play over some hymn which our father had just composed, 
and to which we were anxious to listen. 

In this way my father was enabled, by his own exertions 
and the practice of strict economy, to defray the cost of 
publishing his numerous works. Afterwards, friends con- 
tributed for this special object. I have before me an 
account-book, from November 1843 to September 1863, 
on the first page of which I find the following inscription, 
in his handwriting : — 

"Tracts. — I have been occupied with this work since 
1819, and have spent a considerable sum out of my own 
pocket ; but, since 1 840, finding I was unable to bear the 
sole expenses any longer, I applied for assistance in various 
quarters. Having visited in England, in 1 843, and received 
£50 to promote this undertaking, I have determined to 
keep an account both of money subscribed and tracts dis- 
tributed." 



180 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



A catalogue of his productions, as complete as I could 
make it, will show that their numbers increased the older he 
grew.* As his physical strength diminished, he sought 
solace in his pen ; and it is but fair to add, that the weak- 
ness of advancing age never betrayed itself in his pages. He 
left also numerous MSS. behind him, together with many 
hundred hymns ready for publication ; which brings me to 
make a few remarks on his attempts in the field of sacred 
poetry. 

He inherited from his father a natural talent for versifi- 
cation. His young man's note-books are full of " essays in 
versification;" and he had an invariable partiality for 
expressing, in either French or Latin impromptu verses, 
some passing thought to which he wished to give special 
emphasis. 

This gift, like every other, he enlisted in the service of 
the faith. Postponing further reference to his hymns, I 
would add that he issued, from time to time, sacred poems, 
graceful and musical in their flow, and containing many 
happily turned stanzas. In 1824, " The Blind Eeceives his 
Sight;" in 1826, "A Letter to our Young Poet," addressed 
to a relation of Ms, " Imbert Galloix," probably the best of 
its kind. One verse will be sufficient as a specimen : — 

Ah, look around .... 

See God's high gifts — His holy day, — 

In ribald laughter jeered away ; 

While His redeemed, by sufferings pressed, 

Learn that the world is not then.' rest. 

In 1830 appeared his " Hymn on Peace," in which, in 
nearly nine hundred Alexandrines, he endeavours to set 

* Added to the original work " La Yie de Malan," &c. — Note by Trans- 
lator. 



" UPON THE HARP WILL I PRAISE THEE." 181 



before an old fellow- student the grounds of the assurance 
and repose which he had derived from the faith. In the 
following passage, he treats of its nature and the founda- 
tion on which it rests : — 

" The undying germ of truth divine, 

From heaven it comes, He makes it thine ; 
While faith the treasured seed applies, 
And makes a bliss that never dies. 
Seek not her characters to read 
In toil-worn phrase of borrowed creed ; 
His most who best by rote can learn, 
If once the sire's, the son's in turn — 

So trustful youth, to kiss or blow 
A strange indifference will show, 
And, guided by a teacher's nod, 
Bow down to Baal, or to God." 

Another example may be quoted : — 

" Christians in name, but citizens of earth, 
Of lifeless graces take the righteous worth. 
Ye can't offend who every wrong excuse, 
Dread honest speech, and to condemn refuse. 
Who blend the Bible with the wild romance, 
Or vary solemn prayers with games of chance ; 
Who, by a secret strange, to heaven unknown, 
License to sin relieve with grace t' atone ; 
Homage to faith at idols' shrines afford, 
And in the gilded play-house serve the Lord." 

In 1846, he published " Virtue and Grace," with a pre- 
face, in which, in connection with principles of literature, 
he shows how far he was under the influence of that essen- 
tially theocratic idea which expects to realise, in domestic 
education and national life, the highest principles of the 
gospel. 

At this time, at the age of sixty, he addressed the follow- 
ing to a fellow-citizen, a well-known poet : — 



182 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



" Hoar are our locks, our footsteps frail, 
With tottering gait, and limbs that fail. 
Through all our frame we hear the sigh ; 
' Child of the dust, 'tis thine to die ! ' 

" How often, still, on yonder height, 
Shall we behold the blushing light ; 
Or there, when evening whispers peace, 
Wander in sweet forgetfulness. 

" Ah, think, eternity is near, 

With thoughts of bliss, or thoughts of fear ; 
Be ours to choose, while erst we may, 
For endless life an endless day." 

Thanks to the subject of these verses, — the characteristic 
defect of all didactic poetry betrays itself here in a special 
manner. In order thoroughly to appreciate its charms, and 
enter into its spirit, we ought first to be imbued with those 
particular impressions which its stately and somewhat 
elaborate numbers are designed to communicate. Hence, 
in spite of the occurrence, here and there, of pleasing pas- 
sages, and notwithstanding all the care and toil which 
their author has bestowed on them, his poems of this class 
have never found readers. Unquestionably, his chastened 
style and. graceful versification found better scope in lyrical 
than in didactic poems on his one favourite subject — living 
faith. And be it remembered that faith never takes us by 
surprise. Its morning entrance into the soul succeeds the 
night of struggle ; while the hearts that it has conquered 
it awakes from silence, and kindles into praise. 

My father's reputation as a Christian poet will always 
rest upon his hymns. To this effect is the testimony in a 
well-known religious journal of the time, "Le Senieur," 
published in Paris (August 1837), given at the close of an 
article on Hymnology in France. 



A REASONABLE REMONSTRANCE. 



183 



" Among ourselves, with the revival of faith has come the 
revival of its song ; and that, too, after a silence of more 
than a hundred years. God has taught His servants to per- 
petuate the language of His praise, and has given them 
new hymns through the instrumentality of this truly 
Christian poet. M. Malan has re-awakened the lay. His 
hymns belong already to history, because they have inter- 
woven themselves, and, while the revival lasts, will inter- 
weave themselves, with the joys and sorrows of the 
Church." 

These words have been realised. These hymns are now 
being sung even in the National Church of G-eneva. To 
this testimony it would be superfluous in me to add a 
word of my own in praise of those sacred lyrics which 
greeted me as an infant, and conveyed to me, in my early 
years, my first impressions of Christian truth. They have 
roused the warmest enthusiasm in Albert Knapp, the 
popular religious poet of Germany ; and more than once I 
have heard German musicians, and those of other coun- 
tries, expressing cordial admiration of the melodies attached 
to them. Nor can I help observing how painful it is to 
those who have become lovingly familiar with them, to 
hear them attributed to other authors, or, worse still, to 
find them abridged, and even spoilt, by unskilful correc- 
tions ; to hear them sung at times to strange tunes, or even 
to airs not in the least recalling those to which they were 
originally set. I may be permitted, also, to add, with 
reluctance, that these observations apply to the restricted 
use made of them by the Established Churches of Geneva, 
Vaud, and Neufchatel, for their new psalters ; though 
persons who have hailed with delight the arrival of better 



184 



LIFE OF CJESJB MA LAN. 



days in their official return to hymns, the use of which was 
dear to them from habit, will see undoubtedly in this new 
move a hopeful augury for the future. 

It was in 1823 that he published his first hymns, 
though he made an attempt in that direction in 1821. 
At first he merely intended them for the use of families, 
as might be gathered from the title-page, " Sacred Songs 
for Family Worship." The earliest edition contained only 
thirty-five. To these, however, sixty more were soon 
added in a second issue, with the music arranged for two 
or three voices by one of his friends, M. "Wolff Hanlock, 
professor of music in Geneva. 

In 1824 he sent out, also with tunes attached, the first 
edition of a metrical version of the Psalms, reaching to 
the 50th, under the title, "Songs of Zion," or "Bible 
Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles." This publication, which 
we shall have occasion to notice by and by, not meeting 
with a favourable reception, he devoted himself entirely 
to his hymns, of which he now issued a hundred under the 
title of " Songs of Zion." The edition of 1828 comprised 
two hundred already ; that of 1832, two hundred and 
thirty- four ; that of 1836, three hundred ; that total was 
never exceeded. The last issue was in 1855. 

These hymns were composed at particular periods in 
his own history. After having laid aside his pen for a 
considerable time, he would suddenly resume his poetical 
efforts, as a rule when he was resting from some protracted 
work. He wrote them thus on the spur of the moment ; 
not unfrequently when he was walking, or away on a 
journey. 

Appended to some of them, at the time they were jotted 



HISTORY OF HIS HYMNS. 



185 



down, are notes of the places or circumstances that sug- 
gested or inspired them. Many of them were considerably 
altered, in subsequent editions ; latterly, not always for the 
better. Some, however, more especially the best, have 
remained as they were ; above all, such as were composed 
off-hand. 

So accustomed was he to versify his thoughts, that 
many a time, when some home incident, intercourse with 
friends, or an interesting visit from a stranger, had inspired 
him, he would write an appropriate hymn, and send it 
with suitable music to the person who had unconsciously 
suggested it. Thus our several baptisms and first com- 
munions, our return home after absence, our respective 
birth-days, any departures, births or deaths, in which he 
might happen to be interested, would furnish subjects for 
this pleasing method of commemoration. He never set 
any of his hymns to a strange tune. I do not think he 
could have done so. 

He frequently lithographed them himself, adding a 
sketch, of his own, of the place where they had been 
penned, or some other suggestive design in harmony with 
the subject of which they treated. Many of these fugitive 
pieces are now in my possession, written either for 
schools, or without any special object. 

As regards the tunes, though he played the violin and 
flute when he was a boy, and accompanied himself on the 
organ, he did not possess any very great musical know- 
ledge or skill as a performer. As a proof of this, it may 
be stated that though the melodies suggested themselves 
to him so vividly, that on several occasions, for example, 
he could not sleep till he had noted down an air then 



186 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



in his thoughts, he had some difficulty in rendering them 
on paper. 

As a rule, he was obliged, before completing a tune, to 
read on a musical instrument the note that he heard dis- 
tinctly in his mind. For this purpose he generally 
carried about with him a box containing an octave of steel 
plates. Thus, in the event of an air occurring to him 
during his walk, he would adjust the instrument in com- 
munication with his ear by means of his stick, holding it 
in his left hand, — and, touching the keys with the right, 
set down the notes as soon as he had ascertained them. 

The melody once on paper he would play it himself, or 
get one of my sisters to play it for him, listening to our 
criticisms, inviting and receiving them (above all, when 
they were undeniably true) with a certain inexpressible 
smile of good humour, which those who witnessed it can 
never forget. 

When he was in the vein, the airs, as well as the words, 
occurred to him together. One day the kettle on the 
hob gave him the introductory notes of one of the best 
known of his musical settings. He had frequently said 
that each air was contained, in his conception of it, in its 
opening bars. A friend, to whom I related this, men- 
tioned that, happening on one occasion to meet my father 
on the road, a few years before his death, the latter read 
him some verses which he had just composed, adding that 
the melody, which he intended to put to them, had been 
suggested to him by the sound made by an imperfectly 
oiled cart-wheel, which had that moment reached his ear. 

I give these details, however puerile they may appear to 
be, under the impression that not only the members of my 



RESTING AWHILE. 



187 



family, but all to whom the " Songs of Zion " have been old 
friends, will read them with interest. One association, 
however, connected with these hymns had a prominent 
place in my father's most cherished recollections. 

It was in 1827, a year the spring of which had involved 
him in endless anxiety and fatigue; he was so upset, indeed, 
that his medical adviser insisted on his taking a thorough 
rest. On the strength of this order, he left Geneva for a 
village in the northern part of the Jura range, then for 
Fraubrunnen, near Bern, to avoid fatigue. It must be 
remembered that at that time he did not speak German. 

During his three weeks' absence, he composed a great 
part of his "Hymn of Peace," several detached pieces of 
poetry, and a considerable number of his best spiritual 
songs. Let it be recollected that all these were pub- 
lished afterwards without revise, that to many of them 
a melody was attached at the time of their composition, 
that the man who did this was on the invalid shelf, — and 
the fertility of his life and the power of his thought will in 
a measure be realised. 

In this way, indeed, my father always took his holi- 
day, up to the very end. In proportion as his strength 
diminished, in proportion as he lost his interest in mere 
passing events, this special work, serving as it did to 
elevate his soul, became his supreme delight and his chief 
recreation. In the concluding year of his life, indeed, it 
proved the most effectual antidote to the weariness and 
weakness by which he was visited. 

Before 1830, his house was full of juvenile boarders, 
generally English. Their age, as a rule, varied from 
eighteen to twenty. The object of those who entrusted 



183 



LIFE OF CAESAE MALAN. 



tliem to his care was to secure for them his influence and 
guidance, as well as to forward them in a knowledge of 
Trench. He devoted himself entirely to their interests, and 
many of them dated their conversion to their residence with 
him. That good man, Charles de Eodt, whose memory is 
so precious, decided on the ministry when he was living 
under his roof. 

So it was with John Adams, who left Geneva to devote 
himself to foreign missions. I have several of his letters 
in my possession, indicating the feeling with which he, in 
common with many others, looked back upon those early 
days. Only to instance Adams, whose life has been 
published : — the letter of the well-known missionary 
Lacroix to my father, dated the 23d April 1831, announces 
his premature death in the following terms : "My 
brother, — the London missionaries in Bengal have com- 
missioned me to communicate to you the departure of your 
old pupil and son in the faith, John Adams. He died on 
the 2 1 st, after a very short illness, brought on chiefly by 
over-exposure to the burning Indian sun, while he was 
fulfilling his work as a minister of the gospel. His mis- 
sionary career was short-lived, but not so will be the traces 
of his labours, nor do I doubt that the great day of judg- 
ment will show that he has not toiled in vain. In every 
possible quarter, — in the market, at the great places of con- 
course, by the highway, in villages and hamlets, — you might 
have found him distributing tracts and speaking the word 
of life. His zeal for the glory of God and the good of 
man, his love for his brethren and for all the children of 
God, his firmness of character, his spotless life, his tho- 
roughly Christian spirit, secured universal esteem. We 



LOVE OF THE YOUNG. 



189 



lament his death as one of the greatest disasters experi- 
enced by our mission since its formation in Bengal. May 
I but secure a place near him/' writes this man of God, 
now also in the presence of his Master, "when it shall 
please the Lord to call me hence ! His grateful remem- 
brance of you, my dear sir, of your anxious care, above all 
of the blessing you were the means of conveying to his soul, 
knew no bounds. He often spoke of you, and never with- 
out enthusiastic declaration of the love and reverence he 
experienced towards you; even in his delirium, I heard him 
speak of M. Malan with peculiar delight." 

An illustration this, among many, of my father's life- 
hold on the young men under his care. He looked upon 
them as his own children ; and by many of them who will 
possibly read these pages his memory will be cherished as 
that of their father in the faith. 

But, besides his boarders, his catechumens occupied no 
small share of his attention. He prepared each of the 
lessons he gave them, assigning them the chief parts of the 
day's teaching, marked with Scripture proofs on cards 
lithographed by himself. He had been from an early age 
accustomed to teach ; hence his predisposition, throughout 
his whole life, to devote himself to the young, and to inte- 
rest himself warmly in their welfare. The very day of 
the opening of his chapel the institution of schools was 
devised, where children might receive at once the rudi- 
ments of a sound education, and the elements of a reli- 
gious training. In the midst of the conflicting emotions 
which that event occasioned, my mother felt strongly the 
necessity of adding the erection of schools to the original 
design, and spoke of it to my father as they left the chapel. 



190 



LIFE OF GJEBAE MALAK 



He at once assigned a place for the purpose, and the 
school commenced with seventy or eighty little girls. 
Great exertions were made to provide a mistress. Eemain- 
ing in the place where it was first established till 1864, 
and maintained from month to month, and week to week, 
by voluntary contributions procured through my mother's 
exertions, it still continues, — ruled by the same principles 
on which it had been founded in 1821, and universally 
regarded as a model establishment of its kind. 

Its foundress, when at length her great age precluded 
her from taking any active part in its work, was gladdened 
by witnessing a continual accession of new supporters and 
protectors of its interests. After the chapel was pulled 
down in 1864, the school was necessarily removed from 
the apartment where it had been originally commenced, and 
has recently been settled in a building erected for the pur- 
pose by an old friend of my father's, whose fame is in all 
the Churches, M. de Laharpe, Professor in the Free School 
of Theology in Geneva. My father used to visit it from 
time to time, and never failed to preside at its annual 
feast. 

Some years afterwards he endeavoured to start another 
for boys, on a similar model ; but it did not continue for 
more than three or four years. About 1828 he turned his 
attention to an infant school founded by a Dutch lady in 
his congregation ; nor did he confine himself to efforts like 
these. Scarcely had he set on foot these movements of 
which we have just spoken, than he endeavoured, in 1829, 
to form a superior institution for the education of young 
women. This enterprise he zealously followed up for 
eighteen months, when the death of the directress, and the 



INFANT BAPTISM. 



191 



loss of some of the most helpful members of his congrega- 
tion, compelled him to abandon it. 

His affection for the young showed itself in his writings, 
from the very first. Besides the little catechisms, men- 
tioned already, he published in 1824 his " Child's True 
Friend," to supersede Berquin's work, almost the only one 
at that time known to children. His object, as he himself 
describes it, was to furnish them with a kind of literature 
which might serve to amuse them, while at the same time 
it set before them something higher than mere human 
excellence. 

This work (translated into English forthwith, — the last 
edition of it, in four volumes, appearing in 1850) — is 
a collection of minor pieces, chiefly narrative, setting 
forth some leading moral principle, or truth of doctrine. 
They have been found fault with, indeed, as being too 
dogmatical, yet there are many families in which these 
books are still welcome friends ; and, if I may quote my 
own feeling in reference to them, and that of many others, 
it must be a matter of regret that they should remain 
unknown. 

With such a love of children, as an instinct of his heart, 
it is not to be wondered at that he should have espoused 
so zealously the cause of infant baptism. In 1823, at the 
time when his refusal to withdraw himself voluntarily from 
the Established Church placed him in a questionable and 
altogether untenable position towards other communions, 
with which he nevertheless greatly sympathised, the ques- 
tion of baptism was started in the Church of the Bourg de 
Eour by English influence. Finding no counter argument 
at first with which to meet their representations in favour 



192 



LIFE OF CMSAR MALAN. 



of what was to liim a new doctrine, my father was won 
over by its absolute character, and declared himself con- 
vinced. Once persuaded, that firmness of his in testifying 
to what he believed to be true came out in its full force. 
His advocacy of the new belief was ardent and emphatic. 
He determined to be baptized afresh. 

However, on his arrival at Secheron, at Mr Drummond's, 
under whose auspices the ceremony was to take place, he 
passed in review the various passages of Scripture with 
which the doctrine is generally supported. Suddenly he 
was struck with the apostle's language to his converted 
brethren, "Your children are holy." He immediately left 
the room, sought retirement, and reopened the whole ques- 
tion in private. 

The result of his study was a volume of two hundred 
pages, published in 1824: "God v Ordains that Children in 
the Church of Christ should be Consecrated to Him by the 
Seal of Baptism." Eecapitulating the primitive arguments 
in favour of the practice, he added the opinions of some of 
the fathers, and then examined the passages of Scripture 
urged by Baptists. The only trace of its authorship which 
the book reveals, is its energetic maintenance of the theory 
that as baptism, like circumcision, came direct from God, it 
could not be said to require any human preparation before 
it was administered ; that the only possible preparation 
for it must emanate from sovereign grace, and be as acces- 
sible to an infant as an adult. Furthermore, baptism with 
water is but a sign, and the grace it confers a mere 
summons to salvation. These opinions he vigorously 
defended in 1835, in a publication entitled, "The Baptized 
Family." 



THE CHAMPION OF THE OPPRESSED. 193 



The first of these works was refused by the bookseller, 
on the plea that he himself was a Baptist. This may serve 
to show how high, in those days, party spirit ran on that 
question. 

It will be generally remembered that, in 1824, a few of 
the junior members of the clergy of the Canton de Vaud 
began to hold meetings for worship out of regular hours, 
and thus became subject to official persecution and popular 
odium. At this crisis, my father did all in his power to 
encourage his brethren, and render them personal help. 
His house was open to refugees from amongst them ; to 
many of their members he became personally attached; and, 
not satisfied with appealing directly in their behalf to the 
magistrates of their canton, he declared himself as their 
champion, in his published " sermon." 

This brief treatise, only thirty pages long, transports us 
instantly to those forgotten days when, in their fervent 
espousal and advocacy of the faith, " the sectaries," as they 
were called, endured an open and often ferocious opposition. 
Inspired by the remembrance of suffering such as befell the 
brothers Olivier and Juvet (the latter of whom, so said his 
friends, fell a victim to their intensity) these pages 
abound with traces of that anguish of soul with which 
their author contemplated the evidence of a Christian 
people's downfall, and the harbingers of divine judgment. 
At the same time, they live with the thrill of anticipated 
triumph for the faith, and deep-rooted conviction of the 
reality of the eternal kingdom. The stirring incidents they 
record, — in their least details full of interest, — combine 
with the language in which they are written to render 
them a precious monument of the time, they describe. j 

N 



194 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



In this same year, when the general discussion of the 
controversy between my father and the clerical party had 
in a measure abated, a member of that body, M. Cheneviere, 
Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the Academy of the 
Establishment, issued his Precis of the theological debates 
which had gone on for some years in Geneva, causing a 
translation of it to be inserted in the " Monthly Eepository 
of Theology and General Literature," at that time the 
English, organ of the Unitarian party. 

On receiving this publication, in which he himself was 
made the subject of personal attacks, my father wrote the 
following letter to the author : — 

" I remember, my dear Cheneviere (for dear I must still 
call you), that one of the last things you said to me, five or 
six years ago, was that nothing could interrupt our entire 
mutual unreserve, or render it possible for us to condemn or 
abuse each other as enemies. I believe I have adhered to 
this sentiment, and that no word of mine, whether written 
or printed, has assailed either your person or character. 

" Your last publication, however, has convinced me that 
your feeling towards me differs widely from mine towards 
you. As soon as I had read it, I formed a wish either to 
see or write to you ; and, if I have suffered any delay to 
interpose between my design and its execution, this has 
simply arisen from a desire to rid myself as much as pos- 
sible of all such unworthy impulses, as attacks from with- 
out are too apt to arouse in us." 

Going on to assure him of his own anxiety to continue 
unimpaired the interchange of private courtesies, he pro- 
ceeds to say that, as a minister of Christ, he could no 
longer maintain any relations with him. " I am compelled 



DEPRECATES PERSONALITIES. 



195 



to draw a distinction between my old friend and the theo- 
logical teacher. In this last capacity I cannot hold any 
intercourse with yon, nor even acknowledge you. In the 
first, I turn to you with all my heart, and with the word 
on my lips, ' If I have spoken or done evil, bear witness 
of the evil ; but if well, why smitest thou me ? ' That 
your way of thinking in religious matters should have 
disposed you to see error in the doctrine I hold as abso- 
lutely true, in no way surprises me ; that you should have 
written in contradiction of what you hold to be error, is 
no more than fair. Thus you would have provoked 
inquiry and research, and have tended to throw light on 
that truth which you and I profess to seek after, and to 
value above all our own views and prejudices. 

" But why attack me ? What connection can you find 
between my humble individuality and the course I have 
followed, whatever it has been or may be, and the verities 
of Christian faith ? Why have you thus dragged me for- 
ward, and stigmatised me with reproach ? ISTo mere 
injury of me can affect the truth I preach; and these 
assaults, however justifiable they may have appeared 
to you, and may be in themselves, can only draw from 
him who experiences them the words of the psalmist: 
' The Lord hath said, Cursed be David ! who shall then 
say, Wherefore hast thou done this V (2 Sam. xvi. 10.) 

" What most pains me is your attack upon my Master 
Himself. That regret is deep and abiding. I have said 
to many, and what I have said is true, ' If I could by the 
entire sacrifice of that prosperity with which you reproach 
me, and with which God has blessed me in common with 
many other heads of similar institutions in Geneva ; if, by 



196 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



resigning this very day the whole of the worldly goods 
which I enjoy here, I conld bring you to a knowledge of 
that truth which divine mercy has revealed to me, how 
thankfully would I return to poverty for the attainment 
of such an end ! Good would it be for me and mine to be 
once more deprived of all we possessed, if by our poverty 
you might be made spiritually rich. This is no mere idle 
sentiment, Cheneviere, I earnestly assure you; no mere 
gushing outburst of passing feeling. I know it is the 
emotion of my heart, and of my wife's as well. Truly we 
should bless God for such a dispensation. 

" What I actually possess, my clear friend, I have won 
by hard work." He then proceeds to detail to him the 
ways and means by which his competence had been 
attained. 

" I have nothing to reply to your written attack by way 
of detailed rejoinder. To do so would have been easy to 
me, without assailing you personally, a thing I never do 
in any case. I could easily have rectified certain errors of 
fact and inference set forth in your Precis, by reference 
to a work I published last year, immediately after my 
official connection with the National Church had ceased, 
under the title of ' Testimony to the Gospel by a Minister 
of Christ.' I know that, in the general judgment, that 
publication would have cleared my personal character of 
all the reproaches you have addressed to me ; but I have 
been most unwilling to appear even to raise my voice 
against you* Many others will do this. I learn that a 

* This work, although it had been printed, was kept back from publica- 
tion by my father, at the request of one of the magistrates, for the love of 
peace, and in order to avoid raising new disturbances. Being repeatedly 



TENDER FAITHFULNESS. 



197 



reply lias already been published in England, and that its 
tone is in thorough accordance with the lofty spirit which 
has dictated it. You will have to be prepared for numerous 
rebukes, and the general displeasure of many different 
communions. The nature of your written sentiments is 
such that, passing by all purely personal matter, it will 
provoke against you and against the Church in which you 
are an authorised theological teacher, a unanimity, not 
indeed of attack, but of rejection on the part of all those 
who reverence the Bible, and believe in the salvation 
which is to be found alone in Jesus the Son of God. You 
have, I learn, inflicted a terrible wound on the Church 
you would fain defend. 

"But there are more important considerations still in 
reserve. The safety of your own soul, dear Cheneviere, is 
a matter more intensely solemn, and demanding even 
greater interest and anxiety. Had I but the right to 
speak to you now, as I have spoken to you in times past, 
I would tell you of my great desire to see you, to converse 
with you, to explain to you in detail what your writing 
proves you to be as yet unacquainted with — our principles 
and conduct. Not that I have any wish to bring you to 
think as I do, or to win you to my side, as a partisan ; I am 
but governed by a consideration of the peace and life 
which would flow into your soul through the knowledge 
of Jesus as He is, against Whom there may be found in 

called upon to reply, however, after Cheneviere's attack, especially by 
friends out of Geneva, he determined, not indeed to issue his work publicly, 
but to communicate it to his friends, as occasion required ; taking care first 
to make the magistrate acquainted with his reasons for so doing. My 
mother tells me that this was the only occasion she could recall on which 
he displayed any hesitation as to the part he ought to take. 



198 



LIFE OF C2E8AB MALAX. 



your writings something approaching to positive blas- 
phemy. 

"What I intensely desire," he adds, "is that He TVho 
has called me by His grace to the knowledge of Himself, 
would incline your heart to listen to and accept the good 
tidings of that salvation which is 1 from Him, by Him, and 
for Him.'" 

He concludes by assuring him, should anything in his 
letter have given him pain, of the affection by which it 
had been dictated. 

In January 1826 came on for hearing the case of the 
minister Bost. It was a great event in Geneva, not only 
on account of the sensation likely to be produced by a 
public debate in which the respective rights of the official 
clergy and the press were to be discussed, but more par- 
ticularly from the decision that followed the first trial, as 
well as the final judgment of the supreme court of appeal. 
Bost was acquitted of calumny against the Venerable 
Assembly, while he was at the same time condemned for 
various injurious expressions which he had made use of with 
reference to them. Everybody understood the drift of this 
sentence, that from that day forward, — certain forms and 
proprieties being adhered to, — there was absolute liberty in 
Geneva for the public discussion of the rights of the old 
Protestant clergy. 

My father, however, was in no way concerned in the 
affair. The less so, as the lawsuit was prepared at a time 
when Bost, (as he himself declares in his " Memoires,") was 
in a position with reference to him which led him to believe 
that he would not be prepared publicly to espouse his 
cause. This, however, was not the case. Ignoring all 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 



199 



personal considerations, lie hastened to join the friends 
who surrounded the accused, and, in concert with them, 
he never quitted him till he had seen him safe out of the 
reach of the mob who had followed him with hoot- 
ings. He it was who made a sign to the guard to shut the 
gates on the crowd, whilst Bost and his friends, (himself 
among them,) escaped by a side gate. 

In 1825, the Synod of the Secession Church of Scotland, 
by a decree of the 1st of September, had enrolled Malan in 
their body, after anxious and solemn deliberation, and after 
having been convinced, on the personal testimony of many 
of their members, as well as on good authority variously 
collected, that his faith was sound, and that he attached 
himself to the Presbyterian form of Church government. 
In February 1826 he received from the same assembly the 
offer of pecuniary aid. In his reply, declining their liberal- 
ity, he contented himself with expressing a desire for the 
continuance of that brotherly union of which he said he 
felt increasing need, along with an increasing sense of his 
isolated position with reference to the Church of Geneva. 

My reason for mentioning this arises from the rumours 
incessantly circulated in Geneva by the enemies of the 
cause to which my father had dedicated himself, explaining 
his opposition as the result of a salary received from abroad 
for that purpose. I shall have occasion to recur, (in the 
record of the year 1 843,) to these calumnies, — as gratuitous 
as they were treacherous. 

Though I purpose deferring to another chapter the 
account of his missionary journeys, I cannot altogether 
overlook, at this point, what he did that year in England 
and Scotland. It was then that he found himself the 



200 



LIFE OF GJESAE MA LAN. 



object of that overflowing, though transient enthusiasm, so 
frequently meted ont to foreign guests in England, whose 
career has been in any way prominent ; more particularly 
to such as have exhibited those qualities of vigour and 
independence in the discharge of duty, to which that great 
nation so justly awards the highest honour. My father, 
however, was little able to adapt himself to the experience 
of a religious public character in England, or the demands 
it involved, nor yet to fall in with the frequent lionising 
accompaniments of English " meetings." So far from 
having " cleverly availed himself of his position to advance 
his temporal interests," as was alleged by those who 
ought to have had more self-respect than to bring such an 
accusation against him, he rather neglected the advances 
frequently made to him by men of high standing and 
position. ISTot indeed under any motive arising from the 
simple fact of their rank ; he was no radical, but a spirit- 
ually-minded and dignified man, to whom any confusion 
of temporal with eternal interests was eminently distaste- 
ful. While, as regards his English friends, he often chilled 
them by the openness with which he criticised certain ways 
which they deemed obvious and right. 

After having been received in London, and introduced 
to some friends by a nephew of Robert Halclane, who had 
stayed with him at Geneva some years before, he preached 
in the metropolis before going to Scotland, where his pre- 
sence attracted much observation, and where he made the 
acquaintance of several eminent men. On his return to 
London, he led a more private public life, no longer 
preaching, as he did before, to crowds of eager hearers, 
though he kept up the numerous relations formed during 



ACADEMICAL COURTESIES. 



201 



his previous visit, with members of all the various evan- 
gelical denominations. I may add that this journey, the 
eclat of which, increased by distance, stirred up against 
him an envious spirit in Geneva, is simply mentioned in 
his " Church Journal " in these words : — " The four and a 
half months which I have spent in England have been 
owned of God by a demonstration of power accompanying 
the Word." 

Shortly after his return he received from the University 
of Glasgow the degree of " Doctor of Divinity." His 
diploma, dated the 10th October 1826, and signed by the 
chancellor and eighteen professors, was sent to him " as a 
very faithful pastor, an excellent man, commendable in the 
highest degree for his piety, and the holiness of his life, and 
especially worthy of the highest theological honours." 

Delighted and encouraged by the reception he had 
experienced abroad, he continued to display, during the 
years that followed, extraordinary energy and activity. 

It was at this time that he established " La Societe 
du Bon Depot," and renewed his efforts to induce his 
friends to unite with him in the endeavour to found a 
school of evangelical theology in Geneva. 

The Society " Du Bon Depot " (as it was called) was 
started in January 1827, in a pastoral assembly of the 
Church of Testimony, for the purpose of defending and 
disseminating the faith by religious tracts, by the circula- 
tion of the Bible, and by home and foreign missions. This 
association, of which my father was the very soul and 
principal agent, acquired considerable importance, which 
it preserved up to the time when the Evangelical Society 
of Geneva became the centre of all activity of that kind. 



202 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



With reference to originating a theological institution, 
this was a movement in which he necessarily required the 
assistance of his brethren. He had had the idea of it in 
his mind from the close of 1825, and it was by his advice, 
indeed, that one of the nonconforming pastors of Geneva 
applied himself to the study of ecclesiastical history with 
a view to this project. In 1827 he again brought the sub- 
ject under the notice of his brethren, urging the necessity 
of founding at Geneva a school to be conducted on strict 
principles, where young students for the ministry might be 
brought up in sound scriptural, as well as scientific and 
secular, knowledge. Tor a moment it seemed as though 
the thing were really going to be done. Towards the end 
of the year, however, on his return, after a brief absence, 
he found that the friends to whom he had communicated 
his views were already prepared with schemes for forming 
among themselves an " Institution " in no way coming up 
to his idea of what was needed. It so happened that just 
at that time he had had a visit from a young student in 
theology in the National Academy, who had been com- 
pelled, on account of his orthodoxy, to abandon his idea of 
ordination in the National Church. My father took him 
to live with him and superintend the education of his 
sons, undertaking, at the same time, to complete his course 
of preparation, a boon which was afterwards shared by 
three other young men, who soon found themselves in the 
same predicament. 

I have before me the MS. of an inauguration address, 
delivered to these students on the 18th December 1827. 
It contains no great display of learning; it simply sets 
forth, in glowing and animated strains, the nature of the 



CANDIDATES FOR THE MINISTRY. 



203 



Christian ministry, representing it as a holy trust, not, 
indeed, committed to delegates direct from Christ Himself, 
but to mere re-declarers of the inspired testimony of 
prophets and apostles. They are not required to tell the 
world of any other message than that which issued directly 
from God Himself. That message is to be found in the 
Bible, wherein faith apprehends it under the influence of 
the Divine Spirit, and requires to be studied, vindicated, 
and upheld by means of theological research. 

I select from this introductory address the following 
passages which may serve to illustrate that ardent love of 
truth which was at the foundation of my father's dog- 
matism, as well as that direct personal communion with 
God which stamped his faith with absolute independence 
and certainty. 

" Truth, as she actually exists, as she has 

ever been, as she continues to be, as she will be, world 
without end, — this truth is the witness of the Spirit 
of God, who knows and searches into the deep things of God, 
and who cannot lie in whatever He reveals. There is no 
uncertainty here, no probabilities, no questionings, no re- 
cantings of error, no equivocations, no ambiguities, no 
seducing argument, no empty declamation, nothing incom- 
plete, insufficient, or imperfectly stated, but everywhere 
from beginning to end light, purity, perfection, a glow of 
glory and grace. Truth is set forth as ' a strait and nar- 
row path I as clear and deep waters, as refined gold, as silver 
seven times tried in the fire, as luscious and fragrant honey. 
St Paul speaks of its treasures as ' treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge.' It is the knowledge of heaven, for it is the 
word of God." 



2(H LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



And further on, in his enumeration of a preacher's 
duties : — " Consider, gentlemen, how jealous is the faithful 
servant of the sovereignty of his Lord and Master over his 
conscience ; he is free, he has been emancipated by the 
Lord Jesus, though for the love of his Master he is servant 
of all. He is under the yoke, indeed, but it is the yoke of 
God and His Spirit, through the Word. He acknowledges 
no other, he knows no other ; no persuasion, no seduction, 
no force, no constraint, can reach his conscience ; and 
while he knows that it is neither in a spirit of insubordina- 
tion, nor from a desire to create a reputation for himself, or 
to surround himself with disciples, that he severs himself 
from ties which had held him in his ignorance, he honours 
first his Master's word, and submitting himself to it as a 
trust for which he must give account, he declares loyally 
and fearlessly, in public and in private, that the kingdom 
and glory belong to God, and that those who fear Him 
should bow to Him alone." 

Let me quote further a distinction between the orthodox 
professor and the believer, as laid down in his " Prolego- 
mena" in the same course of reading : — 

" The one bases his faith in the divine authority of 
revelation on his own arguments and deductions ; the 
other establishes it on what God has made known 
to him ; the one rests on the truthfulness of God, as on 
one of the perfections which he has learned to attribute to 
the Divine Being ; the other, on the truth of God as re- 
vealed to his soul by an act of divine power ; the one 
accepts, through his reason, the witness of God ; the other 
receives that witness in his heart." 

These instructions continued for more than a year. In 



GREAT PERIL. 



205 



March 1829 a thesis appeared on "Original Sin," addressed 
to students in theology by the candidates of the Church of 
Testimony, and entitled, " Who can bring a clean thing 
out of an unclean ?" That same year one of these candi- 
dates, M. Vivien of Geneva, (now a pastor in the French 
Protestant Church at Arras), was ordained by my father, 
who was assisted on the occasion by some of the non- 
conforming Genevese pastors, with others from abroad. 
Among the former was M. Bost, who says, with reference 
to the occurrence, " that it was one of the very few ordi- 
nations in which he had never regretted having taken part." 

To return to 1827. On the 20th of May in that year 
our home was laid waste by the inundation which M. 
Bost describes so graphically in his Memoirs. It was on a 
Sunday evening that the event took place. About six 
o'clock, the atmosphere being dull and oppressive, black 
clouds swept suddenly over the sky, and scarcely had we 
fled for shelter from the garden to the house, when a water 
spout broke over the Pre rEveque with unparalleled vio- 
lence. The water rushed into the garden, and flooded the 
basement of the house. My father, up to his waist in the 
flood, endeavoured, with my elder brothers and some of 
the boys of the Sunday school, to rescue the furniture and 
numerous articles which the stream was bearing away. 
At one moment, rushing into the current, he had great 
difficulty in saving a servant girl who had been carried 
away while she was trying to render assistance. From 
time to time he stopped to ask if we were all safe. The 
storm was terrible. The roar of the water, mingled with 
the crash of the crumbling garden walls, and the cries of 
the neighbours who retreated into our house, escaping by 



206 LIFE OF C^SAB MALAN. 

the roof from their own, which was threatening to give 
way. The road had become impassable. This lasted for 
several hours. Meanwhile, night came on, but found us 
unable to procure a light, or to prepare food for the little 
ones, — the cellar and the ground floors having been taken 
entire possession of by the waters. Whilst the family was 
assembled in the rooms above, one of the children (sis 
years old) asked his father to pray to God to stop the rain. 
At the request of the little one, he fell on his knees, and 
as he was praying the rain and the fury of the storm sud- 
denly ceased, whilst at the same moment a voice was heard 
calling him by name. It was an English friend who came, 
half swimming, to our rescue from our neighbours, the 
Wolffs, pushing a basket before him full of provisions, 
with a supply of candles. The next morning the garden 
and the basement of the house presented a scene of mourn- 
ful desolation, the road and plain of the Pre l'Eveque 
being covered with mud and gravel, while a quantity of 
fish accumulated round proved that the water spout had, 
in the first instance, passed over the lake. 

But this was not all. An excited crowd had collected 
to view the havoc which had been created, and assumed 
from time to time a threatening attitude. One of the 
lower orders, having forced his way into the house, caught 
sight of the passage of Scripture over the drawing-room 
chimney, which my father (according to a frequent habit 
he had of decorating his apartments after that fashion) had 
painted there, in large characters, many years before : 
" We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be 
destroyed, we have a building of God, an house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." 



VISIT TO FRA UBRUNNEN. 



207 



~No sooner had the man seen it, than he called to his 
comrades and harangued them to the effect that " the 
miserable hypocrite, instead of exerting himself to save 
his family, had occupied his time with writing these 
words." The mob soon prepared to proceed from words to 
deeds, but an opportune arrival of gens d'armes cleared 
the premises. 

Our friends the Wolffs, whose country-house was hard 
by, lost no time in offering shelter to my mother and the 
children, while our dwelling was being repaired. As for 
my father, so far from being depressed by the misadven- 
ture, he named his garden thenceforth the Pre-Beni, a 
name which he transferred to the new country-house 
to which we removed three years afterwards, and which 
adjoined the one we had left. This new abode has been 
for more than thirty years a home of peace and signal 
blessing to us and many others. Thus God Himself 
testified abundantly to the inextinguishable faith of His 
servant. 

Meanwhile my father, who had suffered considerably 
from the anxiety and fatigues occasioned by the May 
disaster, felt in need of repose. It was then that he 
paid the visit to the village of Iraubrunnen, which has 
been already referred to. 

In the summer of 1828 he made another expedition to 
England and Ireland, visiting Scotland at the same time. 
It was during this missionary tour that he was seized with 
an attack of faintness while he was in the pulpit, having 
preached three times in one day, and on several days in 
succession. Finishing his sermon with great difficulty, 
and returning to the friend's house where he was visiting, 



203 



LIFE OF CJBSAB MALAX. 



he became very ill. He was confined to his room for six 
weeks, but availed himself of his period of recovery to 
publish, in English, a little book on the assurance of 
faith. It is entitled, " Theogenes ; or, A Plain and Scrip- 
tural Answer to the Solemn Question, Am I, or am I not, 
a Child of God ?" It passed through several editions. 
During his absence his place was 1 filled by theological 
students, whose sermons, however, he read himself before 
they preached them. 

Shortly after his return, a committee, formed for the 
purpose of erecting a statue to Eousseau, handed him the 
subscription list. Those at the head of the movement 
regarded it, not merely as an act of homage to a man 
whose reputation had reflected renown on his country, but 
as a sort of reparation to his memory, and, at the same 
time, as a protest against the opposition which he had 
experienced in his lifetime from the clergy and magis- 
trates of old Geneva. 

My father, however, held Geneva to be no other than 
the city of the Eeformation, the Christian city, the asylum 
of pure truth. Xot only, therefore, was he unable to aid 
the project, but he felt constrained to regard it as a public 
denial of that faith, whose recognition in high quarters 
constituted in his eyes the sole glory of his country. 
Hence he replied, in November, to the deputation which 
had been sent to him, in a pamphlet of several pages, 
entitled, "Eousseau's Statue : Answer of a Citizen of Chris- 
tian Geneva to an Application made to him to contribute 
to its Erection," and addressed to the members of the 
committee formed for that purpose. 

With, singular eloquence and feeling, he stated his 



THE ROUSSEAU CONTROVERSY. 



209 



reasons for refusing his co-operation, under the three heads 
of religion, patriotism, and the republic. As a Christian, 
he wondered that the jubilee of the blessed Eeformation 
should find them preparing to erect such a statue; as a 
citizen, he recalled to their recollection the fearful revolu- 
tionary scenes which had terrified his childhood, and asked 
those whom he was adcfressing if they hoped, by honouring 
anew the object of popular incense and adulation at a 
crisis of popular delirium, to promote the welfare of a 
generation already saturated with scepticism, infidelity, 
and licentiousness. Finally, as a member of the republic, 
he disputes the right of a mere section to involve an entire 
populace in its own individual preferences. 

The greater the courage and uprightness of this reply, 
the more certain was it to irritate those who had been 
taught to regard the scheme as a vindication of the 
national honour. "Who knows?" was the lano-uao-e of one 
of the brochures called forth by my father's answer, and 
declaring that the time for rendering justice to Eousseau 
had come, " Who knows whether M. Malan himself is not 
giving a proof of genius in laying the foundation of a new 
Church?" Then urging in a very pointed manner, "an 
absolute separation between the spiritual and temporal," 
it pretends to see, in the earnest protest of which it com- 
plains, not only such idle declamations as are suited only 
to a conventicle of sectaries, but a return of that old leaven 
of clerical despotism, the mere mention of which, it was well 
known, sufficed to arouse in GeneA*a the sensitive suscepti- 
bilities of a nascent liberalism. 

The effect of this publication on the people was such, 

that the magistrate begged my father to abstain for a little 

o 



210 



LIFE OF CJSSAB MALAN. 



time from appearing in public. He replied that it would be 
impossible for him not to leave his house when the duties 
of his ministry required it. That very day, however, as it 
happened, he was seized with lameness, and so kept a 
prisoner for more than a month. His family and friends 
looked on the incident as providential, the physician being 
unable to account for it ; while he himself was as capable 
as ever of writing, or receiving friends. 

He turned his forced seclusion to account by reading 
anew the entire works of Eousseau, and then issued, under 
the title of " Eousseau and the Eeligion of our Fathers," a 
picture of manners in which he depicted vividly the infi- 
delity as thorough as it was artful, which the false senti- 
ments of that author had been the means of diffusing, and 
of which he saw such abundant fruits around him. This 
brochure which appeared under the title of "Folly of a 
Wise Man of the World," was only a republication of a 
production which he had issued in 1826, in English. He 
now sent it forth with a few additional pages, in which, 
under the influence of the self-imposed study, from which he 
had just risen, and while appealing to the ancient faith of 
Geneva, he criticises briefly the shallow and dangerous 
theories of the man, whom it is now the fashion to call 
" The Philospher of Geneva." 

Meanwhile, the statute was executed by Pradier, and 
was inaugurated with great pomp in " L'lle des Barques," 
called thenceforward, " L'lle Eousseau." My father never 
set his foot there from that day. 

After having published, in the February of that year, a 
new edition of his "Songs of Zion," containing two 
hundred hymns, and later, of his "Theogenes," he next 



VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS. 



211 



issued the tracts, "What God Keeps is Well Kept/' " The 
Heathen at our Doors/' and "The Chateau Weather- 
cock." 

In 1829 he issued some new works, besides two sermons 
on " The Love of our Neighbour," in which he dwells on 
the sources and practice of true charity, and " The Two 
Baptisms," delivered on the occasion of the baptism of his 
twelfth and last child. It was then that he again sided 
openly with the dissenters, against whom persecution had 
broken out into new ardour in the Canton de Yaud, where 
many of them had been doomed to imprisonment and 
exile. 

This he did in his publication entitled, " The Liberty 
and Fatherland of the Children of God," * where, in a 
dramatic style, he claims liberty for the persecuted, and 
presents a picture of those pious and brotherly assemblies 
— their substitute for the Fatherland — the Fatherland that 
had rejected them from its bosom. "War with God" — a 
tract of a few pages — is an urgent and solemn appeal 
addressed to the Grand Council of the same canton, in the 
name of justice and right, and of the liberty of the citizen ; 
above all, of the peril which that Assembly incurred, like 
the Sanhedrim of old, of being found fighting against 
God. 

Of course, such published utterances could not fail to 
bring down upon him the odium of the persecuting set, as 
well as of the populace which they had roused. 

It was at this crisis, I think, that, happening to be at 
Payerne, where he was detained by an accident to his 

* " Liberty and Fatherland," the motto of the scutcheon of the Canton 
de Vaud. 



212 



LIFE OF CESAR MA LAN. 



horse, an occurrence took place in which he owed his 
safety, under God, entirely to his Christian presence of 
mind. It is related, at full length, in his " Quatre-vingt 
Jours d'un Missionaire," page 445. 

The same year saw the issue of two fresh tracts, " The 
Good Bargain," and " The Hypocrite." 

The " Good Bargain " is a dialogue between two peasants 
on the gift of salvation through the atonement of Jesus 
Christ, and on those fruits of joy and holiness which are a 
necessary consequence of a hearty apprehension of it. It 
evinces, in numerous niceties of language and gesture, if I 
may so put it, that correctness of observation which, in my 
father's case, proceeded from a thorough love of, and sym- 
pathy with, the people, while, at the same time, it is easy 
to trace, in the sentiments which he puts in the mouths of 
his rustics, the compact and logical development of his own 
system of theology. Thus in " The Elder Son," in " The 
School of Amont Dale," and in many of his other tracts, 
we find rather a lucid exposition of evangelical doctrine 
than a testimony of Christian faith, powerful from its very 
simplicity — an exposition of truth calculated to affect any 
who might as yet be strangers experimentally to personal 
Christianity. 

" The Hypocrite " was merely a narrative of one of the 
numerous incidents which happened to him in his dealings 
with "pious beggars." Throughout his long life he was 
continually obliged to reply to certain deceitful assaults on 
his benevolence by forwarding " The Discomfiture of 
Master Eusard." 

At the close of that year occurred those disturbances in 
his church, of which mention has already been made. As 



THE MISSIONARY. 



213 



soon as they were over, my father, surrounded by a numer- 
ous family, and free from ecclesiastical quarrels, gave him- 
self up entirely to foreign missionary work, while in Geneva 
itself he stood forth as perse veringly, as watchfully, as 
faithfully as ever, a witness for the truth. It is under this 
twofold aspect that we must now regard him, after we 
have endeavoured, as succinctly as possible, to summarise 
that doctrine which, with him, constituted " The Truth." 



BOOK IL 

PUBLIC LAB 0 TIES FEOM 1830. 



CHAPTEE I. 

HIS DOGMATISM, AND THE DISTINCTIVE CHAEACTEE OF HIS 
TEACHING. 

"I know whom I have believed." 

How can I err in trusting Thee, 

O Thou in Whom I move and live ? 
Since Thou hast given Thy life for me, 

What lack I that Thou will not give 'i 

Enough has been said to show that the causes that inter- 
rupted my father's ministry (so far as they are to be traced 
to himself), arose principally from the manner in which he 
thought it his duty to state his personal opinions in the 
midst of his small congregation. 

Before turning, then, to the tale of his missionary 
activity, which, from the year 1830, engrossed more and 
more his time and energies, it would be as well, at this 
point, to say something on the subject of his doctrinal 
views. And, in doing this, we are at once attracted to an 
investigation of the charge of dogmatism, so frequently 



PERMANENCY OF HIS RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 215 



and so early alleged against him, both by friends and foes. 
It will be our future task to account, as briefly as possible, 
for that distinctive doctrine which he was accused of 
making too prominent in his teaching. 

There is one thing in the history of my father's religious 
thought which is ever striking me with fresh force. 
I allude to its unchanged and permanent continuance 
through the progress of years. From 1818 I find, both in 
the notes of his first sermons and in his correspondence, 
the same ideas, embodied in the same formulas, clothed 
in the same phraseology, and illustrated with the same 
metaphors even, which he employed to the very last. So 
that if, as we know to have been the case, he experienced 
a great change in reference to his ecclesiastical principles, 
this was in no way true as regards his theological tenets, 
which, so far from modifying, he asserted to the end with 
increasing conviction and clearness of definition. 

Of course, he had not been slow to arrive at the con- 
clusion " that the conversion of the heart to God was a 
work for which the mere argumentative force of truth, 
dogmatically declared, was utterly insufficient." But if he 
found himself thus driven to conclude that an indiscrimi- 
nate, unregulated declaration of truth was to be avoided, 
he did not, on that account, vary either the positiveness 
or clearness of his testimony, nor yet the special form in 
which it had uniformly been invested. Of course, this 
involved him in a degree of monotony, not always re- 
deemed, with those to whom his teaching was most 
familiar, by the solemnity and authority which his singu- 
larly lively and heartfelt convictions imparted to his 
delivery. 



216 



LIFE OF CASSAB MA LAN. 



It may be admitted at once that he was rather a faith- 
ful and courageous witness to the truth, than a theologian, 
in the strict sense of the term. Not that his contempo- 
raries regarded him thus. One glance at the so-called 
theological productions of the French world of that day 
will show this. And indeed if, according to an old say- 
ing, prayer, hard work, and earnest study of the Scriptures 
make a theologian, he has, in good truth, a right to the 
title, and that in an eminent degree. After distinguish- 
ing himself in his youth as a correct and graceful Latin 
scholar, and a dialectician of no mean capacity, he gave 
himself up exclusively, from the year 1817, to the daily 
study of the Scriptures. He had continued to read the 
New Testament in Greek, and as Hebrew had scarcely 
been taught at Geneva during the period of his education, 
he devoted himself to the study of it as soon as be had 
the leisure. For several years he kept up the custom of 
reading one or two psalms a day in the original, and was 
able after a time to quote many of them by heart. 

T\ r ith reference to his study of the Scriptures generally, 
he prosecuted it chiefly during the early hours of the day, 
till, by degrees, his morning reading developed into his 
habitual occupation. I remember the smile with which, 
one day towards the close of his life, he thought it right 
to explain to me, when I found him turning over the leaves 
of a Virgil, how he happened to be making acquaintance 
once more with a friend of his youth. 

As regards the careful toil of his researches, some of his 
writings have sufficiently demonstrated that he had by no 
means failed in his efforts after patient scholarship. His 
correspondence on such matters is occasionally very 



HIS LEGACY TO THE CHURCH. 



217 



striking; such a letter, for example as one containing a 
searching criticism of a work on which his opinion had 
been asked. There are others, too, (copies of which are 
in my possession), complete treatises of Biblical dogma- 
tism, as it was understood at the time ; and I have often 
asked myself, as I studied his closely-written pages, 
full of quotations and discussions of texts, all accurately 
reasoned out, and not unfrequently punctuated and 
arranged in paragraphs, whether I was not rather reading 
a work prepared for publication than letters written 
hastily and addressed to a private friend, as their style and 
personal allusions running through them, abundantly prove. 

The truth is, that even if my father had not bequeathed 
to the Church a system of dogma capable of satisfying the 
requirements of the present time ; his testimony, bearing 
as it ever did on what is the central point of all true Chris- 
tian dogma, has not the less succeeded, on the other hand, in 
silencing such negative and erratic views as have elicited 
its attacks. * Passing by the fact, that he has left her what 
is better far than a new system of dogma, a truly apostolic 
example in the proclamation and defence of the Christian 

* I cannot help expressing my regret that the Rev. E. de Pressense, in 
the retrospective view which introduces his remarkable essay on Redemp- 
tion, should not have pointed more clearly to this fact. As he has named 
my father as the representative of the system of theology, admitted by the 
instruments of the revival, it would have been but fair if the gifted author 
who criticises the narrowness of view which seems to him to be the conse- 
quence of that system, had indicated the difference between Malan and his 
contemporaries. Speaking even of the revival as a whole, if de Pressense 
thought it his duty to impugn it as leaning towards " antinomianism," he 
certainly ought to have stated that, whatever might appear to be the natural 
result of the doctrines then most conspicuously put forward, the fact remains, 
that the leading characteristic of that great religious movement was a 
strictness of morals bordering on austerity. 



218 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



faith ; nor yet recalling in how many hearts there is reason 
to believe he was the means of writing the everlasting 
name of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, — in how many 
souls his clear teaching dissipated the mists of an uncertain 
faith; what he has done for the Eeformed Church in 
general, by means of his controversies with Eonie — what 
he has given to the Church in his writings and hymns — 
these alone are grounds sufficient for according, him the 
title of Doctor of Theology, with which, first of all those 
connected with the great revival, he was honoured by a 
foreign university. 

At the same time, he used invariably to maintain that 
he was no theologian. "All I know," he would often 
repeat, " is the sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ, the 
trust committed to me, of which I must give account." 

Yet, in spite of this modest self-depreciation, it is clear 
that, even as a theologian, my father exercised a marked 
influence over other minds, as well by the precision and 
patience with which he reiterated the doctrines of grace, at 
that time little thought of, as also by the firmness with 
which he maintained the divinity of Jesus Christ and the 
divine authority of the Scriptures. Still, if he was a theo- 
logian among his contemporaries, he was supremely a dog- 
matic theologian. 

Already, at the commencement of the revival, his oppo- 
nents among the Genevese clergy had reproached him with 
exaggerating the importance of what seemed to them little 
better than theological subtleties. Even then he was 
publicly attacked, on the ground of being too much given 
to hair-splitting rationalism ;* a fault imputed to him from 

* "Un rationaliste trop scrutateur." 



THE THEOLOGY HE HAD TO MEET. 



219 



a very early period, though, under another name, by his own 
brethren. 

As for the attacks of those who had no part in his faith, 
none deserved the reproach of rationalism less than he; 
at least, if the word is to be taken to mean that disposition 
of spirit which will not believe in anything which reason 
has not grasped, not merely in the recognition of its exist- 
ence, but the understanding of its essence. To employ 
reason to defend the expression of faith already arrived at, 
is not rationalism. Hence everything depends on our 
ascertaining whether the dogmatic reasoning of Malan did 
or did not meet the negations which encountered evangeli- 
cal faith, or whether it did or did not bear upon points 
which belong exclusively to instinctive heart piety. 

To ascertain the exact truth on these points, it will be 
necessary to form a correct idea of the negative theology 
with which he had to deal, and of the state of the religious 
atmosphere round him. 

At the present time, unquestionably, thanks to the 
unmistakable clearness with which the debate was 
carried on (more especially by Malan himself), unbelief 
has been driven to a denial of the positive or direct 
authority of the Bible. Appealing therefore, in support 
of its negation of religious truth, to distinctions of which 
Malan, in his youth, had not a conception ; it seeks its 
weapons of attack in the inner facts of the present life of 
the soul. To follow the adversary successfully into such 
a region, the champion of the faith finds it needful to 
analyse these facts attentively. And, as an inevitable 
result, the only authority which will remain available for 
his purpose will be that one tribunal, ever supreme in this 



220 LIFE OF CjESAR MA LAN. 



subjective sphere, the tribunal of conscience, and the 
absolute character of the moral obligation it imposes. 

Looking, then, at the question from this point of view, 
which, as we regard it, may be stated as that of the actual 
apologist, it is evident that a mind which, as we have 
seen, was the case with Malan, discarded in the investigation 
of religious truth all thought of the human element con- 
sidered as such, would fail to exercise any very general 
influence. Moreover, this point of view, the mere pro- 
pounding of which might possibly scandalise the orthodox 
believer, had not then been assumed. At that time friends 
and foes of the revival alike confined themselves to the 
region of religious supernaturalism. Neither side thought 
of making those facts the subject of theological study, 
which belong to the so-called anthropological science. It 
never occurred to them to suppose that it was the business 
of the theologian to determine the essential relation sub- 
sisting between the divine and human element. Nor was 
this only the case with such as denied the Incarnation ; 
even men, for whose faith this fact had remained holy and 
precious, considered it after all as an isolated miracle 
without an essential and distinguishable cause. Eeligious 
doctrines included only, in the general judgment, theological 
truths properly so-called ; such verities as referred to the 
being and work of God, considered apart from man and 
the world. 

Both sides, therefore, concurred in taking, for the first 
and only base of religious argument, not so much a just 
appreciation of the nature of the facts of revelation and 
salvation which are stated to us in Scripture, as of the words 
themselves which transmit to us the historical knowledge 



AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 



221 



of these eternal verities. Thus it was that these words of 
Holy Writ were universally designated as being in them- 
selves " the written revelation/' so that no one would have 
thought of appealing to any other religious authority than 
that which they contained. It did not occur to any one 
to indicate that first and primitive authority which pre- 
cedes, and which alone establishes for us, that of the 
Bible. On this last point especially, not only did the 
Genevese Church remain true to her traditional history, 
but for more than a century and a half, during a contro- 
versy with Eome, in which texts had been freely bandied 
about, the disputants had assumed a position which not 
even the Eeformers themselves had definitely taken up — 
the verbal inspiration and oracular character of the sacred 
writings. Every one admitted the divine authority of the 
very letter of the Scripture, regarding it as the direct 
result of a supernatural action of the Holy Ghost* It 
never occurred to any, even the most determined opponent 
of the revival, to relegate the fight to that point. As for 
the men of the evangelical party, intent on the thought of 
reviving, in the midst of a people who had entirely lost 
sight of them, the holy and essential truths of the per- 
sonal will of God, and of the soA^ereignty of His grace, 
they loudly denied any sort of moral liberty to the human 
soul in the spiritual phenomenon of individual faith. 
Thus it was that such men had been forcibly brought to 
substitute, for the living and personal principle of that 
faith, the mere passive acceptance of a divine action sub- 

* The first man in Geneva who, at a later period, undertook to reply- 
publicly to the letter of E. Scherer against the inspiration of Scripture, was 
Professor Cheneviere, the representative of the most decided opposition to 
the religious movement of the revival. 



222 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



sisting entirely apart from the believing soul. Hence it 
followed that the action of the Holy Ghost, exclusively and 
strictly attached to the written word, existed for religious 
thought independently of the action of personal faith. 
Another corollary v 7 as, that the sacred character of this 
same action bore specially upon the clergy, the sole ex- 
positors of the written word, and also on the general fact 
of the visible Church, through whose instrumentality alone 
it has been handed down to the faithful. Nor did it ever 
occur to any evangelical believer to distinguish between 
the authority and the inspiration of the Bible, between 
the objective truth of the facts to which it testifies, and 
the perfect accuracy to be attributed to the varying mode 
of expression in which these facts are set forth. 

And what abundantly proves our assertion is, that as 
soon as one courageous champion was heard declaring 
earnestly for that word which received honour in theory, 
and profound neglect in practice, those whom he 
appealed to confined themselves, in reply, to such empty 
and vague generalities as are apt to move public opinion ; 
or, when they found themselves, after all their rhetoric, 
pressed into a corner by his clear and cogent reasoning, 
imported into the discussion the rancour of personality 
and partisanship, thus disturbing the calmness of debate, 
and diverting attention from religious to party interests. 

At the present moment, undoubtedly, this state of 
things has ceased to be. And yet the question still re- 
mains, whether loud opposition, fraught though it be with 
the danger of passionate excitement, is not to be preferred 
after all to that dead silence of indifference which threatens 
to invade the minds of men. 



HIS DOGMATISM. 



223 



Be this as it may, when once we regard the question as 
one of supernaturalism, depending wholly on the verbal 
and oracular authority of the Bible, it must be acknow- 
ledged that Malan's was not one of those minds, meriting 
the judgment of being too much given to investigation, 
because he brought once more into light doctrines long 
passed by, dogmas for many a year despoiled of their 
authority ; on the contrary, it is but right to maintain that 
he was a man of progress, of active thought, espousing 
with faithful courage the cause of a recognised but 
neglected authority ; in a word, the champion of the sacred 
rights of conscience and of religious sincerity. 

As for his dogmatism, so far as it displayed itself, not 
more in the defence than in the confession and communi- 
cating of what his faith disclosed, — about this there could 
be no question. It was impossible to hear him preach, or 
to read the greater part of his writings, without being 
struck by the fact, that he did not content himself with 
rendering simple testimony to the reality of his objective 
faith, but went on to explain, and even to lay down the 
intellectual process by which, in his own mind, he appre- 
hended the object of his faith. 

This characteristic, however, is in no way surprising, 
when we take up the position he shared with those whom 
he addressed. For, as a matter of fact, there was nothing 
in the intellectual formula which he deemed the issue of 
his personal thought. But he and his hearers held it to 
have been directly dictated by God Himself in the in- 
spired Word, — and revealed in its pages. As for the 
introductory question, bearing upon the way in which 
Scripture should be received and understood, no one had 



224 



LIFE OF CJESAE MALAN. 



even raised it. While, with reference to a further point, 
embracing a still wider scope — the inquiry, how a divine 
revelation is to be communicated to the human soul, 
whether by direct experience of divine realities, or by the 
intervention of the thought of an intelligible presentation 
of them ? — this most important consideration, which ought 
to introduce all dogmatism on religious truth, was at that 
time utterly ignored. Thus my father remained unable to 
distinguish, in precise terms, between the essential authority 
of his faith and the relative importance of his doctrine, — the 
latter representing to him his Christianity and theology; — 
between the authority of his faith, and dogma; so that dogma, 
in his judgment, conveyed not merely truth, but the truth. 

And yet, inasmuch as his faith, as is invariably true of 
living belief, was experienced by him as " the gift of God " 
to his soul, he could not but repudiate indignantly the 
reproach he had already incurred, that he considered it 
as the result of a simple process of thought. Still, the 
way in which this assertion was persevered in, proved 
conclusively that, whatever his personal experience might 
be, his teaching lent a colour to it. The fact was that, 
inasmuch as his whole attention was absorbed in the 
devout contemplation of the salvation of God, the act by 
which the soul apprehends that salvation seemed to him 
so simple and so natural, that he did not care to inquire 
curiously either into its history or elements.* Here, as 

* In Malan's eyes, to believe was no act. ct To believe does riot 
give any trouble," are bis very words. " "We must believe without stir- 
ring." (See Quatre-vingt Jours d'un Missionaire, p. 16.) Sucb senti- 
ments denote clearly, not a credulous mind, wdrich bis never was, but tbat 
confiding disposition wbich appears in the whole tenor of bis life. He was 
called upon, as sucb natures generally are, to live rather with God and of 
God than with men and of men. 



DO WE MAKE VOID THE LAW THROUGH FAITH? 225 



appears to us, was the defect in his teaching ; the point 
to which he, perhaps, did not realise the necessity of 
directing sufficient attention. We may go further, and 
characterise it as the general want in all the revival 
preaching, — the feature that, for the present generation, 
leaves it, so far, entirely unsatisfactory. We charge that 
tendency, not indeed with denying to faith the character 
of a free, and, as it were, original work of the conscious 
will of man, but with going further still, by failing to see it, 
as it really is, a free and voluntary act of the instinctive 
powers of the heart. It seems as though, by such an 
exclusive representation of it as the result of an operation 
directly wrought from above, we are forcibly drawn into 
the danger of denying to it all essentially moral character. 
Meanwhile, how is this defect to be explained ? Not by 
alleging, for that would be unjust, indifference to the moral 
interests of the soul. That there were unhappy men in 
that great awakening who " turned the grace of God into 
lasciviousness" is possible; is, unhappily, only too probable. 
But that so terrible a stigma could be affixed to the revival 
generally, much more, that it could be charged upon any 
one of the devoted band whose names figure in its history, 
will be utterly denied by any who have had the least 
acquaintance either with them or the time in which they 
lived. 

Such a reproach was, indeed, undeserved. Only, carried 

away by an energy of zeal which took its rise in sincere 

faith and charity, those who were the heralds of that 

awakening applied themselves to what was, at that time, 

the most pressing want, — the proclamation of the objective 

reality of a salvation hitherto universally lost sight of. 

p 



226 



LIFE OF CAESAfi MALAN. 



Thus only, and from no laxity of moral views, they failed 
to advance all that appertained to the human appropria- 
tion of the divine tidings, — equally with the truth itself 
objectively, a part of the divine message. Thus it was 
that, in some instances, they ran the risk of offering to 
those whom they taught a mere half-gospel, while, it 
must equally be believed, to obviate this danger God 
raised up, in the midst of the revival, the mighty voice 
of Vinet. 

But to confine ourselves to what immediately concerns 
the subject of these memoirs. It must be allowed that 
we have completely accounted for his dogmatism. En- 
grossed in absolute contemplation of the work of God, 
considered as an historical fact, he had no leisure for a 
slow and patient investigation of that work in the centre 
of the believer's personal life. Himself supremely a man 
of action, he was neither a thinker nor a psychologist, and 
mere subjective contemplation, in his judgment but useless 
dreaming, appeared in his eyes a sin. Admitting that he 
often divined and anticipated the secrets of the human 
heart, he never patiently examined its mysteries. He even 
refused the task as useless and wrong. In his eyes, it 
seemed nothing short of passing over the consideration of 
the glorious salvation of God, viewed as an external fact, 
for the sake of inquiring into the method of laying hold of 
it, on the part of a creature himself powerless for good ; 
leaving, in short, the celestial accents of the voice from 
heaven to listen to the confused mutterings of degraded 
and sinful humanity * 

* Thus it was that Malan did not even hesitate to affirm that we should 
offend God if we were to pray to Him for a salvation which He declares 



HIS ANALYSIS OF FAITH. 



227 



Hence, while lie never scrupled to protest against the 
reproach already quoted, he may very fairly be charged 
with want of decisiveness in specifying the nature of that 
faith so prominent in all his teaching. Assuming that it 
is to be regarded in itself, according to his experience, as a 
moral act,* it is no less clear that it did not so present 
itself to his thoughts at its first commencement. Faith, 
it is urged, was in his eyes the heart's trust. Granted ; 
yet it is at the same time a trust only to be reposed in 
God after, and merely so far as, we have come to believe 
in His salvation as an historical fact. It is therefore 
principally, and at first, heartfelt confidence in a work of 
God plainly understood, a God revealed to our intelli- 
gence, — or at least in an operation of God clearly appre- 
hended in our minds. In his judgment the moral element 
was indispensable to constitute our faith. Here, indeed, 
is the distinction between his fervent living piety and 
that dead orthodoxy, that abstract contemplation, which 
has never affected any but those who have had thrust 
upon them its icy declamations. Yet, while he is per- 
petually recurring to the necessity for faith being thus 
living and heartfelt, that moral element which he 
so constantly claims as an essential constituent, does 
not, according to his view, appear in its earliest origin. 
That element, if we watch for it, is ready to inter- 
pose for sanctifying and spiritualising what was at first 

He has already accomplished. — (See Quatre-vingt Jours oVun Missionaire, pp. 
140, 412, &c.) We may add that this sin, as he viewed it, was not 
so much a want of confidence in God's moral character as a doubt of the 
truthfulness of His written word. 

* He defines it, the firm and sure confidence of the heart in what God 
says. — Ibid. p. 279. 



228 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



but a simple deduction of the mind. In a word, he re- 
jected the idea that before we could come to know God, 
we ought first to have been taught to love Him, believing 
that we ought to know Him first before we come to love 
Him* 

The faith he preached is in short that central reality in 
the human soul, that new life of the affections, which the 
apostles were for ever setting forth. But in consequence 
of the decisive part which, according to him, the under- 
standing had to fulfil at its very earliest up-springing, 
the object of it remains in his teaching, if not in his 
own mind, rather a doctrine about God than God Himself ; 
rather the name and history of God than that living 
Being Whose influence is felt in the soul before it has 
intellectually apprehended His work, before even it has 
learned to stammer forth His name. Hence possibly his 
hearers ran the risk of mistaking for saving faith a mere 
belief in the salvation of God rather than in God the 
Saviour; reliance, rather, in God's work than the con- 
fidence that work inspires in the personal character of Him 
Whom it reveals as a righteous Father. 

* The following expresses his entire thought on this point. The passage 
occurs in a letter addressed by him, in March 1827, to one who saw in reli- 
gious faith an exclusively intellectual operation : " Saving faith is an Almighty 
act by which the Holy Ghost enlightens the mind or touches the heart. 
Thus it is that the faith which concerns the understanding only is a mere 
science, or knowledge ; whilst that which apprehends and receives Christ is 
a living science, received by the mind and the heart, by which is to be under- 
stood the willing and acting principle in man. This faith is not, therefore, 
as you state it, the full evidence of truth as it is known and accepted by the 
mind or the understanding ; rather is it that same truth perceived by the 
understanding, and received by the heart, namely, by the affections, or the 
will, of the soul. There is, therefore, in that faith an operation of the Holy 
Spirit wrought upon both the powers of human nature, the understanding, 
and the will, and not one which merely touches the former." 



HIS ANALYSIS OF FAITH. 



229 



Thanks, however, to the life and fervour of his piety, he 
was so far from incurring this peril, that he did not even 
see it to be a legitimate consequence of his teaching. 
Moreover, we are not now speaking of the believer, but 
simply of the teacher. 

To confine ourselves, therefore, to his doctrine. It is in- 
disputably true that, from the time that faith presented 
itself to him in the manner indicated, he gathered also that 
the individual intelligence of every believer necessarily 
appeared as capable, not only of reflecting clearly in itself, 
but also of rendering to others a true account of, the faith 
which constitutes the central life of the believing soul. 
Thenceforth, nothing was more natural than that my father 
should ally with his definition of saving faith his entire 
system of theology. Hence the- charges of ultra-Calvinism 
and generally of scholasticism, which were so often urged 
against him, even by his best friends ; while he, on the other 
hand, regarded them as so utterly incomprehensible, that 
his only reply was a still more exact statement of his dog- 
matic views. He failed to see that what staggered his 
brethren was not the want of accuracy in his logic, but the 
place he assigned to it. And yet, it never occurred to any 
of them to point out this distinction; they were satisfied with 
their censures, but they never went further and explained 
their vague criticisms. r\o one was bold enough to say that 
the point in dispute was not a religious truth, but a psycho- 
logical fact. ]STo one put into plain terms the question at 
the root of the allegation, whether an experience as yet 
instinctive, and not reflected from the understanding, can 
be in us an experience really objective, a direct operation 
of God upon the soul. 



230 



LIFE OF CMSAE II A LAN. 



Above all, ray father held such an acting of instinct to 
be nothing more than a subjective issue of imagination or 
personal feeling, in every instance a mere outcome of 
separate personality.* Hence, in his opinion, the whole 
work of salvation, whether viewed absolutely or relatively, 
stood out as wrought before us, and consequently as 
wrought without us. As regarded our interest in it, its 
claims upon us, these he held as questions purporting to be 
the issue, not so much of instinctive experience as of clear 
intelligence. 

From this it will be easy to infer, what we have just 
asserted, the great importance which he attached to clear- 
ness and precision in dogma as the expression of faith, 
regarding it, as he did, not merely as the human version of 
that faith, but above all as a divine idea preceding the 
entrance of faith into the soul, and which faith at its first 
up-springing is bound clearly to apprehend. We shall 
understand, too, how it was that his dogmatic teaching, 
being the expression of his faith, clothed itself in a dis- 
tinctly syllogistic form ; the more so, as his own fashion of 
thought was logical and acute. Hence, not satisfied simply 
with stating his faith as a living reality within him, he 
could not refrain from explaining it as a reliance based 
upon considerations approving themselves thoroughly to 
his reflection. Hence, moreover, — assurance of salvation, to 
be complete, had to rest with him on a clear and conclusive 
syllogism. In a word, and this was the obnoxious element 
in his dogmatism, it was only by an effort of charity that 

* " To feel that T am rich, is to deceive myself ; but to believe that the king 
is rich, because he says it, is to be certain of a, fact, although I do nol feel 
it." — Quatre-vingt Jours, &c. 3 p. 218. 



RELIGION A SCIENCE. 



231 



lie credited those with living faith who failed to formularise 
their creed exactly as he did. 

Having thus given a thorough analysis of the charac- 
teristics of my father's religious opinions, I must hasten to 
recall the circumstances in the midst of which they were 
developed. Not only had he been occupied in secular 
and religious teaching from a very early period, as well as 
in pulpit ministration, but the very atmosphere he had 
imbibed, and in particular the character of his studies, had 
contributed to favour what was beyond a doubt a leading 
trait in his disposition. 

Not to go back as far as Calvin, which would have been 
necessary had we wished to have a full insight into the ear- 
liest beginnings of the tendency with which we have just 
been dealing, it will suffice to remind our readers that the cate- 
chism in which my father and his contemporaries had been 
instructed, commences by defining religion as "a science." 

So it was an admitted fact in Geneva that the religious 
life could only exist in those whose minds were illuminated 
with clear religious knowledge. Hence it was, possibly, 
that earnest men, when they saw religious life decaying 
around them, so far from supposing that the eclipse of 
dogmatic teaching which prevailed had resulted from this 
decline, attributed to that doctrinal obscurity alone the 
symptoms which dismayed them. 

Thanks to the essentially dogmatic atmosphere which 
surrounded alike their opponents and themselves, their zeal 
could hardly fail to express itself dogmatically, and that 
in direct proportion to the fervour of their faith. This 
remark applies not merely to the Protestantism of Geneva, 
but equally to that of Scotland, as well as to the tendencies 



232 



LIFE OF CMBAE MA LAN. 



of the English " evangelical party" which so decisively in- 
fluenced the origin of the revival, and especially my father. 

It was not, however, from the positive influences alone 
to which Malan was exposed, that he derived his dog- 
matism ; it was also fostered by the reaction he was called 
upon to oppose to other influences of a directly opposite 
character. At Geneva, as everywhere else, an excessive 
intellectual dogmatism had aroused a correspondingly 
vehement opposition. Underneath and alongside of the 
prevalent official intellectualism there existed in the re- 
ligious world a counter mysticism, as vague as it was 
fanatical. Whilst, among its disciples, men of education 
drew towards the lofty aspirations of a St Martin for 
example, among the masses the same tendency frequently 
expressed itself in superstitious devotion or exaggeration 
of the imaginative faculty. 

Both these types of religious thought had been en- 
countered by him from an early period. As a young man 
he had been a member of a lodge of theosophic and mystic 
masons.* 

Afterwards, however, the spectacle of the enthusiasm 
existing in certain minds in connection with the visit of 
Madame de Kriidener to Geneva, contributed, possibly 
more than he himself was aware, to throw him into that 
attitude of prudent reserve, to which he carefully adhered, 
with reference to the earliest manifestations of the revival. 

But more yet remains. His studies favoured this in- 
tellectual tendency. After his humanity course, followed 
as it was by no sound philosophical reading, he proceeded 
to theology, only to discover it to be, as conducted in his 

* See De Goltz, " Geneve Eeligieuse," pp. 120, 121. 



CO-OPERATING INFLUENCES. 



233 



experience, of dogmatisms the coldest and most pedantic, 
the dogmatism of a disguised and emasculated Christianity. 
Impelled, however, by his mental bias to bring everything 
within the compass of a precise definition, instinctively 
averse to all confusion of thought, as well as to all formulas 
which evade and twist, instead of boldly grappling with a 
question, he soon found himself unable to rest satisfied with 
the superficial, vague, obscure, and diluted teaching, which 
the theological professors dealt out. Not only according 
to his way of looking at things, (so thoroughly Trench in 
this respect,) was it sufficient to prove an idea false, if it 
could not be clearly shaped ; but none of his studies had 
led him to distinguish between truth and reality, between 
a thought, and the fact of which every thought must 
necessarily be but an inadequate expression. 

Such were the influences which, in conjunction doubt- 
less with the peculiar bent of his intellect, while they 
did not, of course, result in any positive confusion of 
the moral and purely intellectual elements of the soul, 
still made him regard the one as so intimately allied 
with the other, that the state of the heart might fairly be 
inferred from the conclusions of the mind. Hence, we 
may not only understand the syllogistic and definitive 
character of his teaching, but also arrive at a just interpre- 
tation of his position as head of a church. We see how 
he thought himself permitted, or rather considered it his 
duty in the interests of ecclesiastical discipline, to form 
clear and definite judgments on the inner life of those who 
availed themselves of his ministrations. Eegarding con- 
version, not merely as a reality indispensable to salvation, 
(as every believer would admit,) but more than that, as an 



234 



LIFE OF CAJSAR MALAN. 



event, the occurrence of which may always be specified 
with certainty, even to the extent of setting forth its 
earliest dawning in the renewed soul, he felt himself 
driven, spite of his sound judgment and thorough large- 
heartedness, to separate men into two classes, Christians 
and worldlings, and this not merely, in a general sense, as 
one stating an abstract fact, but most strictly and uni- 
formly relying for decision, not merely on the fruit of the 
heart, but of the understanding also. 

But let it be stated emphatically, in reference to this 
last point, that, as he judged others, so he judged 
himself. In his own case, we find him dating his con- 
version, not from the earliest impressions of his child- 
hood, nor yet from the religious convictions of his youth, 
but emphatically from that precise moment, when, under 
the influence of the study of the Scriptures, he gave a 
thoughtful and intelligent assent to what he had so Ions? 
practically though unconsciously held. Not, indeed, that 
he failed to distinguish between the period when he 
became orthodox and that of his soul's awakening, but 
even in admitting this distinction, it was with a view to 
maintaining that the latter would never have transpired 
except as the issue of the former. 

In general terms, it may be affirmed that his thoughts 
were more given to the objects, privileges, and life of faith, 
than to its subjective analysis. His care was to meditate 
upon and to proclaim to others the celestial fact revealed 
to his soul ; his one absorbing consideration, the fact itself, 
its greatness, and the assurance and rapture with which 
his spirit overflowed. It was not a question with him how 
he received it, still less did he dwell on the accompanying 



BELIEVING AS A LITTLE CHILD. 235 



conflict, his thoughts were given up wholly and absolutely 
to the possession, the assured possession, of the salvation of 
God. Begotten again to a new life by the sudden manifesT 
tation of this wondrous grace, when once by a simple act of 
will he had laid hold of the promise, instinctively and irre- 
vocably, — he could not suppose for a moment that any soul 
experiencing a similar manifestation could ever pause or 
consider. Full of adoring gratitude to the God of all 
grace, believing implicitly and with his whole heart the 
gospel of salvation, he had no thoughts to spare for him- 
self, for the nature and justifiableness of the transports he 
experienced, which were to him the joy of a new life. It 
was not for him to analyse doubts he had never known, 
or to investigate, even in a speculative spirit, the precise 
conception he had formed of that Divine Saviour "Whom 
his soul adored. In a word, he left it to others to indulge 
in researches for which he had no fancy. His one desire 
was to proclaim daily, with zeal ever fresh, not so much 
the character as the work of God, not so much what He is 
up to the present moment to every believing soul, as what 
He did once for the elect. And this he did in demonstrat- 
ing and defending the truth of the gospel, and the results 
to which it leads, not so much as an historical manifesta- 
tion of the eternal thoughts of divine love, but principally 
as being the primary origin and first cause of our salvation. 
Such was the end he strained at with the authority of a 
conviction ever growing in power, depth, and heart-felt 
earnestness. 

And he was one of the most impressive preachers of the 
objective and absolute reality of salvation. Here lay the 
explanation of his dogmatism ; here also, its advantage. ISTay 



236 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



more, so far from involving him in any spiritual dangers, 
it became the actual source of a prominently enthusiastic 
and active piety. Indeed, with his impulsive, ardent 
nature, glowing with fervent energy, sober-minded and 
self-contained though he was, with a heart to which sim- 
plicity and sincerity imparted genuine greatness, he com- 
bined that trait which characterised Calvin himself, — an 
inability to understand how the reality of a fact could be 
allowed without the will and life exhibiting all its legiti- 
mate results. 

So far as any soul might be held back, either by utter 
ignorance of what God has done for man, and apart from 
man, or by a want of clearness and precision with reference 
to this divine gift ; for such a soul there could have been, 
there can be now, no more useful or powerful preacher than 
Malan. But beyond this he was not prepared to go. It 
was not his gift to descend from those great heights of 
contemplation to an attentive, patient, persevering, and 
occasionally minute analysis such as is the holy task im- 
posed upon the pastor as the trainer of feeble, unwise, 
uncertain souls. Awe-struck himself by the eternal glories 
of the work of God, entranced, enraptured again and again 
by the mere contemplation of it, his eagle eye seemed never 
weary of dwelling, with an ever fresh delight, on the centre 
of all that dazzled his soul. For himself, and for others 
equally, he knew of but one remedy for every soul sick- 
ness, one solution for ever perplexity — the written testi- 
mony of God, the recorded work of God, the salvation once 
wrought by God* Should he be called upon to deal with 

* We may quote, as an instance of the manner in which he addressed 
such souls, the following extract from one of his later works (" Incidents de 



SEQUENCE OF HIS THOUGHT. 



237 



a soul, for the needs or sufferings of which this simple 
message proved inadequate, he never stopped to search out 
the cause of the evil in the recesses of the troubled heart, 
or in any special circumstances of the case ; but confining 
himself exclusively to the historical and objective reality 
of the work of God, he proceeded forthwith to argue from 
it all the consequences it involved ; his penetration, energy, 
eloquence, and unsparing logic being called into full 
operation. 

Not that it is to be inferred from this that he ever 
thought of representing salvation itself as being within 
the grasp of mere reason. He, like every other believer, 
knew well that spiritual conviction was direct from God, a 
fact of experience in which the subjects of it are absolutely 
passive. It was not as one seeking to establish the truth 
itself, but as one assuming it, and starting from it, as from 
an admitted conclusion, to which the soul has been brought 
by the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of Scrip- 
ture, that he exchanged testimony for demonstration, con- 
fession for exposition. Never caring even to pause and 
prove the authority of the Bible, he was satisfied to assume 
it, and to quote it authoritatively in its literal and simple 
interpretation. Omitting to take into account all the in- 
consistencies in which the soul of man is involved by his 
free will, and not satisfied with protesting against all abuse 
of his independence of action, he occasionally went so far 
as to turn a deaf ear to its voice, and deny it point blank. 

Voyage," Grains de Seneve, vol. vii. No. 89), which may serve to 
show the injustice of the reproach of antinomianism, as applied to his 
popular teaching : "If you ask why you do not possess that salvation, I 
answer, it is not God's fault, it is certainly yours. Here is the source ; rise 
up and drink !" 



238 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



Nor did lie hesitate to affirm that God and man were sepa- 
rated by a divergence essential, absolute, insuperable. It 
was not enough for him to say with the apostle, " All is of 
God," he would go on to say — what should be said, so 
carefully, or conscience will be outraged — " and nothing is 
by man." 

Thus it has been endeavoured to enumerate the charac- 
teristics of his dogmatism which repelled those who, while 
they shared his faith, by no means shared his views. Him- 
self a sincere and thoroughly convinced believer, the per- 
fect submission of his faith rendered his teaching clear, 
convincing, and irresistible by its strength and life, during 
the whole period of his protracted testimony. Beared, 
however, in the bosom of a prevalent dogmatism, the victim 
in his early years of that defective teaching of his oppo- 
nents which culminates in positive ignorance, and absolute 
negation, it was not surprising that to a negative dogma- 
tism he was led to oppose what was positive and even 
aggressive. 

Here we would again remind our readers of the fact that 
he never claimed to be a propouncler of religious theories, 
a theological professor. When he first commenced his 
ministry, the scientific element in divinity had as little 
ascendency in his thoughts as the mere question of ecclesi- 
astical polity ; and even when it did present itself in due 
course, it never engrossed his whole attention. His one 
aim was to testify to the faith which he had so powerfully 
realised in his own soul by openly avowing it, and, above 
all, by declaring to his brethren, whom he believed to be 
in soul-destroying error, the sovereign grace and eternal 
salvation of a personal living God. For this purpose he 



HIS POSITION ESTIMATED. 



239 



adopted the only formula within his reach — what had 
been, in the society in which he moved, the latest embodi- 
ment of the faith he was then experiencing. He found it 
in " Pictet's Doctrinal Summary," and in the " Confession 
of Faith of the Eeformed Churches of Holland." 

It was not at the bidding of this theology, however — 
so utterly antiquated in the opinion of the Genevese clergy, 
but to him the expression of an eternal truth, — that he 
gave forth his testimony. It was in the name of faith he 
spoke, and not of orthodoxy. If he had recourse to the 
systems of schoolmen, it was not for light to see how to 
fight ; it was only for weapons with which to thrust back 
the negations by which he was surrounded. This is the 
only point of view from which to take a fair estimate, 
not only of his dogmatism, but also of the real motives 
which drove him from the Establishment, and also of his 
after isolation from his non - conforming brethren in 
Geneva. To those who accused him of schism with refer- 
ence to the National Church, he replied that his faith con- 
strained him, at the cost of every other consideration, to 
declare the eternal Godhead of the Lord Jesus. To such, 
again, as appealed to him to go hand in hand with his 
brethren, his answer was, that while he welcomed com- 
munion with them as heirs together of the grace of God, 
he considered himself bound to preserve the speciality of 
his ministry, which was to proclaim the doctrine of re- 
stricted election.* 

Meanwhile, it remains for us to consider whether Malan, 
trained in another school of religious thought, would have 

* He goes so far as to call himself "the minister of election by grace." — 
Quatre-vingt Jours, &c, p. 147. 



240 



LIFE OF CjESAR MALAK 



been equally well fitted for the work which had been given 
him to do. If we recall to mind the atmosphere by which 
he was surrounded, we do not think there can be any hesi- 
tation on this point. The sentiment, not to say the senti- 
mentality, of the author of the " Imitation/' Fenelon, or 
Lavater, admirable as an expression of pious thought, and 
mightily illustrating the manifold grace of God, would 
have failed utterly — indeed, it actually had failed — in com- 
mon with every other attempt to deal effectually with the 
heartless scepticism which, fifty years ago, had overrun 
Geneva. That — in the present day, when a wide breach 
has been effected in the fortress of infidelity, when no 
hindrance offers itself to the promulgation of the doctrine 
of a free salvation, and of the divinity of our Lord, from 
the pulpits of our churches, when none would be held to 
blame for propounding openly the most distinctive truths 
in the apostolic teaching — that in such a day, zealous men 
should show themselves anxious to enlarge upon the 
gradual subjective appropriation of salvation, is not to be 
wondered at. The more earnest, however, such efforts are, 
the more will those who make them do justice to the bold 
and powerful teaching which God employed to win them 
leisure for their great meditation. 

Meanwhile, it will be our wisdom, while we abstain 
from disparaging Malan's gifts on account of his dogmatism, 
to seek gratefully to avail ourselves of the inheritance 
bequeathed to us by that faithful and devoted minister of 
the gospel : but should we fear, on the other hand, with his 
categorical formula of living faith in our hands, that 
in listening to the servant's utterance, we run the risk of 
becoming his disciples, we shall do well to remember that 



HIS OPINIONS. 



241 



we have one only Master, even Christ. At all events, let 
us not be backward to recognise the place which belongs of 
right to the confessor of the Lord Jesus, whenever, in the 
present day, we are called upon to dissipate some special 
error, or to throw light upon some special obscurity in the 
faith. Let us admit the power with which he calls to, and 
awakens slumbering souls ; with which he presses them — 
we had almost said/arces them — " to enter." In these re- 
spects his place is clearly marked out as useful, glorious, 
and great ; to refuse it to him would be wrong to the 
Great Disposer Who raised him up at a special time to 
serve His Church. 

Passing on from his dogmatism, considered solely as the 
general tendency of his mind, to the particular form which 
it assumed ; in other words, to his definite opinions : it is 
sufficient to state that they were those of the old Pro- 
testant orthodoxy, as embodied in the Confessions of the 
Reformed Churches, more particularly in those of the 
Calvinistic Synod of Dordrecht in the seventeenth cen- 
tury ;* in short, the strictest type of what is generally 
known as Calvinistic Scholasticism. 

We must observe, however, that it was by independent 
ways, and through the close personal study of the Word, 
that he arrived at these doctrinal views ; more particularly 
must it be stated that he w T as not indebted for them to 
his intercourse with Mr Eobert Haldane. Not only, as we 
have seen, had he arrived at his fixed opinions before 
Haldane's visit ; but, so far was he from regarding himself 
as a disciple of that truly apostolical man, that he did not 

* He refers himself to that Synod as embodying his theological views. — 
Qmtre-vingt Jours, &c, pp. 138, 403. 

Q 



212 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



even adopt Lis views on the subject of baptism. More- 
over, though he willingly read the writings, both of the 
reformed doctors of the " Federalist School " of Holland (H. 
Witsius in particular), and also of the English divines of 
the Westminster Assembly, as well as of the Noncon- 
formists generally, with many others of the same kind, he 
by no means gathered his opinions from then pages, 
though he studied them with interest as recording his 
ovrn convictions. Above all, I know that he never read 
Calvin, whom he resembled in the most characteristic 
aspects of his religious thought, till long after his con- 
victions had become indelible.* 

He has often stated himself that it was Scripture alone 
that enlightened him. It was not Haldane, but "the 
finger of Haldane," that governed him with the sen- 
tence, " How is it written ? how readest thou ?" which 
that good man loved to repeat to his young friends. 
Haldane was neither divine, scholar, nor theologian ; at 
home in the history of theology, or accustomed to inves- 
tigate it. He was not even an ecclesiastic. He was a 
simple believer, but one profoundly versed in the know- 
ledge of the Word. Hence it is of far greater moment, in 
determining the special influences which operated on my 

* The following verses lie wrote, as far back as 1820, under a portrait of 
the Reformer which hung in the dining-room : — 

c 1 Si nous voyons en toi ce qu'un docteur doit etre, 
Et si nous admirons les dons que tu rec_us ; 
Conime nous serviteur, tu n'es pas notre Maitre, 
Mais avec toi, Calvin ! nous adorons Je'sus." 

' ' While the great doctor in thy form we see, 
And reverence the gifts thou didst receive ; 
Servant like us, in spirit one with thee, 

Great Calvin, to the Master praise we give.'' 



UNCLOUDED TRUST. 



243 



father, to dwell upon the details of his conversion, than to 
specify this or that article of creed which might be found 
clearly set forth in the history of Protestant Dogma. So 
that it will be well for us now, without entering into 
minute particulars, to consider, from a subjective point 
of view, his apprehension of the great fact of salvation, to 
the entire satisfying of the hunger and thirst of his soul. 

"What first arrested his attention was the truth, that the 
initiative in the great work of salvation is to be ascribed 
to the sovereign will of God ; or, as he expressed it, " the 
free sovereignty of the grace of God." It was to this 
supremely that he yielded his earliest homage, going no 
farther, remaining transfixed with gratitude, and silent 
with reverence. No sooner had this view penetrated his 
soul, and flooded it with light, than it governed and 
absorbed his thoughts. Ever new as a theme for con- 
templation, ever living as a fact of experience, this truth 
of a God Who loves, because it pleases Him to love, and 
not because of anything attractive in the object of His 
affection, "Whose love precedes all attractiveness and pro- 
duces it ; this truth, be it understood, aroused and governed 
the glowing activity of his piety. Never, from the moment 
of his conversion, during his long career, through all the 
difficulties, toils, and treacherous experiences with which 
it abounded, not even in the last agony of death, did the 
shadow of a doubt come across his perpetual sunshine. 

All which is easily understood. Let the eye of the soul 
be once fixed on God, and so be withdrawn from the earth, 
and it has before it only what can sustain, console, and 
invigorate. That such was my father's happy experience 
may with confidence be asserted. 



244 



LIFE OF CAESAR 31 ALAN. 



And in making this statement I wish to imply that, 
even before what he himself called his conversion, faith 
in the living presence of God, if not in His grace, the fear 
of a personal and living God, was the ruling sentiment of 
his being. Here was the rock on which, in obedience to 
Christ's own words, he erected his faith. It was this holy- 
reverence that kept alive in his soul his mother's pious 
teachings, despite the temptations of youth, and the freez- 
ing generalities of his studies. These teachings had come' 
to him when she had made him read the Gospels at her 
feet. Thus it happened that he afterwards recognised in 
free salvation the work of that God and Saviour Whom, as 
he was heard to say, he had preached when he knew Him 
not. I would not for a moment suggest that this feeling 
had, at its first uprising, brought liberty to his soul ; all I 
wish to contend for is, that with him, in a manner more 
marked than with the majority of others, it may be seen 
how the fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom. 

At all events, this clear, definite apprehension, this indel- 
ible, personal experience of the free grace of a living Gocl, 
lay at the bottom of all his after work, whether as preacher, 
missionary, or religious author, 

In meditation on this truth, to him ever new, he armed 
himself for controversial encounters,* while from it he de- 
rived those principles which imparted vigour to his morality .t 

* The destruction of every heresy and falsehood is to be found in the 
entire accomplishment of the work of salvation, in the expiation wrought 
by Christ. Hence it is that Rome denies and rejects it with the greatest 
animosity. — Quatre-vingt Jours, &c, p. 279. Compare also p. 127, and 
the whole of his method of controversy. 

+ He makes gratitude the exclusive basis of the whole moral life of the 
believer. Is not the possession of a crown worth some reforms ? And when 
once that crown has ;been given us, shall we sacrifice it to frivolous trifles, 
or to low and impure instincts ? — Ibid. p. 370. 



ANOTHER ELEMENT IN HIS PROTEST. 245 



This central experience of his faith is to be detected even 
in his hymns, where, if he does not teach it, he avows it, 
and is never tired of celebrating it. 

It was this experience of free salvation which presented 
itself not as the reward of imperfect efforts, but as an act 
of sovereign and unlooked-for favour to a wandering; soul, 
blind and lost; it was this blessed revelation which led 
him to rest in Jesus, not as a Helper merely, but as a 
Saviour. Thus it was that he meditated in adoring grati- 
tude on the omnipotent and essentially divine character of 
the Atonement. Thus he apprehended, in its supreme im- 
portance, the eternal divinity of the Saviour, to the con- 
fession of which truth he sacrificed, with all he had, the 
dreams and ambitions of his youth. 

Here also we must judge of his doctrines by the ten- 
dency against which he was called upon to protest. In 
Geneva, as well as in the rest of the Protestant world, 
men of faith and piety even had gradually withdrawn from 
what will ever constitute the special and glorious character 
of the great religious revival of the sixteenth century. 
Under the influence of a dogmatical reaction, into the 
history of which we cannot enter here, the justification of 
the soul had gradually come to be represented, not as 
having been wholly accomplished by eternal love, but as 
being, even according to the divine purpose, the result of 
the faith of the believer, and of his regeneration by faith. 
Thus, even in the teaching of men of the most exem- 
plary piety, that triumphant assurance which had been 
the strength of Luther or Calvin had gradually been re- 
placed by the anxious pre-occupations of a humility falsely 
so called, and by the hesitations of a religious morality 



246 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



which had no really firm basis, and no absolute value. 
These considerations are well calculated to show us the 
great importance of his special teaching. 

Finally, if we remember that Malan, with all who hold 
the reformed faith, never for a moment supposed the pos- 
sibility of the extension beyond the limits of this present 
life of God's saving work towards man, if we remember 
too, that, in consequence of his dogmatism, he never 
deemed it possible for a work of grace to commence in any 
soul — that soul remaining unconscious of its operation — 
we shall be in a position to understand how it was that 
his belief in the divine sovereignty led him to the special 
dogma which characterised his teaching, in other words, to 
that reiterated affirmation of restricted election, or of in- 
dividual predestination, as we find it stated in the writings 
of the reformed divines of the seventeenth century. 

According to his view, this doctrine, as set forth in the 
Word, was no mere declaration, that when any man comes 
to a knowledge of salvation, he is warranted, nay, even 
required, to believe that his salvation is the issue of a pre- 
existing, fixed purpose of God. ISTor was it simply an 
affirmation that this fact, in virtue of which the man is 
then elected amongst others, so far from remaining a 
matter of indifference to him, involves actually a privilege 
deliberately conferred, and with it a solemn responsibility. 
He saw in the doctrine of election far more than this. 
With him it was a formal declaration that when a man 
received by faith the revelation of salvation in Christ, not 
only had he touched the threshold of a new life with new 
responsibilities, but he had also been the subject of a per- 
sonal decree from God Who had deigned to choose him 



VIEWS OF ELECTION. 



247 



by a personal election, and that the divine purpose thus 
apprehended, his salvation is set forth to him as already 
effected, and as calling only for his future gratitude and 
praise. 

In his judgment the knowledge of the gospel was not 
only set forth by the apostles as a providential fact, which 
ought as such to attract our earnest attention ; he held to a 
positive assertion that the return of a wandering soul to 
Christ issued inevitably in its salvation, inasmuch as con- 
version is the work of God Himself, and, from the first, of 
God alone. The presence of faith in a believer appeared 
to him miraculous, and demanding assurance, on the part 
of the subject of it, — with regard to the proof it supplied of 
divine operation, — that his salvation was already accom- 
plished, completely, irrevocably, from the very day, in short, 
when Christ died upon the cross. Of course, in arguing 
thus, he referred not to mere historical knowledge of 
evangelical truth, but to its living apprehension in the 
heart. This point, however, once set at rest, he never 
scrupled to recognise in such a living faith the issue of a 
special purpose, a personal decree, and a fore-ordained 
irresistible act of God Himself; and, as far as its subject 
was concerned, a direct revelation to him of a salvation 
wrought out and irrevocably determined long before. So 
that God cannot be said actually to save a soul at the 
moment of its return to Him. He does but announce to it, 
by the faith He imparts, its place long ago established 
among the ranks of the saved. This faith, His gift, is not 
only the life of that soul; it is its pledge of safety: — 
the evidence proving, not that it is one of those given each 
day by the Father to the Son, but that it is one of that 



248 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAX. 



limited number, purchased once for all by the Son's eternal 
sacrifice. 

Hence, it follows that the believer is expected to 
seek out this hidden force of the new life, rather in 
the revelation which his faith procures for him than 
in his faith itself; rather in the assurance of salvation 
than in the daily exercise of an ever fresh act of belief; 
in short, rather in the kveliness of his gratitude than 
the activity of his trust. With Malan the new life was 
the result rather than the extension of salvation. The 
safety of each soul he held to be absolutely secured 
from the first, and from without. "Either such a soul 
is saved," he never hesitated to affirm, " or it never will 
be.'"' And since, according; to his idea, faith would never 
fail to be accompanied by an illuminated understanding, 
it naturally followed that it was in the power of each one 
to ascertain whether he was or was not a child of God, and 
that, allowing for human fallibility, it was possible to dis- 
cern even here, with reference to others, not only between 
one whom God has already called to Himself, and another 
to whom that call has yet to come, — but even more, between 
the soul loved and saved from all eternity and the soul 
which, if it believe not in this present life, is for ever 
excluded from all hope of salvation. 

Such opinions were not likely to remain long unchal- 
lenged. Aiming at the honour of God, they appeared fatal 
to that liberty of the creature, which after ail constitutes 
one of the conspicuous glories of the Creator. An attack 
upon them was all the more inevitable, because their 
author, in the intensity of his conviction, sought every 
opportunity of promulgating them. 



HIS TEACHING ASSAILED. 249 



During the greater part of the controversy, however, his 
opponents gave him fair play. In short, with the excep- 
tion of a very few who went so far as to assert, with refer- 
ence to a man whose life would have been his best acquittal 
from the charge, that he was "an unprincipled antinomian," 
— the attack was directed solely against that side of his 
teaching, which affirms the absolute freedom and initiative 
sovereignty of God.* 

Here was the point wherein the truth and holiness of his 
opinions were gathered ; here, too, the aspect under which 
they revealed themselves, with increasing clearness, to his 
religious faith. Moreover, the objections urged against 
him in this quarter, could not fail to recall to a man, 
nourished up as he was in the Word of God, the similar 

* At the commencement of this chapter, I referred to M. de Pressense's 
criticism on my father's doctrines. I now allude to such accusations as 
assailed his personal life. 

The expression I employed in the text is borne out by many passages in 
Bost's Memoirs, referring to my father. As this book has been noticed in 
England, I must be allowed to enter somewhat into detail. 

He applies to my father's doctrines the epithet loose, (" des doctrines 
relachees," vol. i. page 87 of the French edition.) And whab shows that he 
means to attribute that character to the man as well as to his writings, is 
the fact that he explains the discussions between Malan's congregation and 
that of the Bourg de Four, as arising out of "vile money questions," ("de 
honteuses questions d'argent.") As he immediately adds that the pastors 
of the Bourg de Four did not receive any remuneration for their services, 
the entire odium of the remark falls upon the opposite side. 

It may suffice, by way of reply, to recall what has been stated in the 
former chapter about the annual sum my father received from his congrega- 
tion during twenty-five out of the forty-five years of his ministry. It would 
be easy to add abundant documentary evidence, showing how he toiled 
himself, that he might be able to help the needy of his flock, never resting 
until his benevolent purpose was accomplished. But any one who knew him 
personally, knew him to be conspicuous for his generosity, disinterestedness, 
and real superiority as regards those money questions which play so weari- 
some and incessant a part in Bost's Memoirs. 

But dismissing this point, and dealing simply w 7 ith the censure which the 



250 



LIFE OF CASSAB MALAN. 



experiences of the Apostle Paul, thus leading him to accept 
this opposition as an absolute sanction of his doctrine. 

The only point to which his attention ought to have 
been directed was, not the mystery of the absolute liberty 
of the divine will, since that (though beyond the reach of 
syllogism) is even further beyond the reach of doubt. 
Truly his opponents should have contented themselves 
with the peculiar side of that question which belongs to 
our human experience ; in other words, to that kind of re- 
sponsibility which, not the eternal will, but the historical 
action of the Supreme Being imposes upon its human object. 

In proof that, by those regarding the question of destiny 
from this point of view, a common understanding might 
easily have been arrived at, it may be remarked, that 
Malan never presses his doctrine on this head to its 
legitimate detailed practical conclusions. That doctrine 

book pronounces on my father's doctrines, it scarcely comes well from one 
who, even in his old age, admits that he is unable to shake off the hesitation 
and doubts which unsettled his mind in his youth, (i. 245 ; ii. 63.) 

Passing over numerous other passages of direct accusation and indirect 
inuendos, I notice one sentence which seems to explain many of them. He 
tells us, (i. 404), "that both in Geneva and abroad they attributed the 
whole revival to Malan." "In Geneva and abroad," they were undoubt- 
edly very wrong, they should have referred it to God alone. Malan invari- 
ably did. 

Should any of my readers wish for a fuller review of these volumes, they 
will meet with one of singular ability in the Record newspaper, November 
28, 1855, and November 30, 1S60. 

As to my father's judgment on a work whose author he had so intimately 
known, I quote an extract from a letter he wrote to a friend, in December 
1855: " I have not read Bost's Memoirs. I have received from different 
persons requests that I would answer sundry assertions which my friend 
has put forth. But I prefer leaving this and many other things to Him 
Who knows the truth as regards this series of incidents and writings. I 
have greater things to do at the end of the week than to rescue from impu- 
tation the work I have done in the course of it. To the Master, and to the 
Master alone, I commit the task of judging it." 



MEEKNESS IN CONTROVERSY. 



251 



remained the natural and necessary expression of the 
obedient adoration of his heart, and therefore produced no 
other result than humility and thankfulness, the two most 
prominent elements in the activity of true piety. 

As to the inevitable influence of his teaching, on his judg- 
ment and conduct towards others, those who knew him 
best will remember the temperate sobriety which charac- 
terised his discussions. Not only was he never seen to 
manifest a Pharisee's self-righteous pride or a fatalist's 
indifference, but it will be in the recollection of many how, 
while from the pulpit he appeared to delight in enlarging 
on the vileness of the creature, he showed himself privately 
ever ready to think and hope the best of all, and to mani- 
fest a spirit of universal and most sincere charity. Xor will 
such forget how easily his sympathy and esteem were 
secured ; and, above all, how careful he was not to pass 
judgment upon others. 

As far as regards the central point in his views, I have 
precious recollections of long and intimate conversations, 
in which, especially in his closing years, I found myself 
often hurrying on before him, expatiating upon the infinite 
mercy of God, and the presumption of seeking to fathom 
the divine counsels. Sometimes he would add a word. 
One day — can I ever forget it ? — after having listened to 
me in silence (it was on the occasion of a visit I paid him, 
shortly after the death of one of my children) he stopped 
suddenly as we were walking on ; then raising his head, 
and fixing his ardent gaze upon me, grasped my hand in 
deep emotion, and withdrew, thoughtful and silent. 

Of course, such recollections are only significant to 
myself. But what will have been universally noted by 



252 LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 

those who knew him, was that persevering, patient, and 
devoted activity, that life marked throughout by charity 
and courage ; marked, too, from first to last, by that passion 
for the salvation of souls in which, as has been demon- 
strated by no feeble pen, resided the grandeur and glory of 
those men of the revival, among whom my father was one 
of the mightiest and most prominent. And this shows the 
fallacy of that charge of self-confident fatalism urged with 
such complacency, from time to time, against those who 
professed their faith in the election of grace. 

I cannot undertake to say whether my father's friends 
share in my impression. But the spectacle of his living 
theism, which revealed to him on all hands the direct, 
actual personal work of God Himself — of his authority, 
courage, and utter clearness in teaching; of his convic- 
tions, so resolutely practical and uncompromising ; of his 
faith, circumscribed indeed, but ever watchful and con- 
stant ; and lastly, of the special use which he made of the 
text of the Word — the spectacle of all this, I say, has 
often made him appear to me like one filled with the 
peculiar spirit of the prophets and faithful of the Old 
Testament, rather than that which characterised the dis- 
ciples of the Xew. Descended directly from the old 
Huguenots, the latest son of the Geneva of Refugees and 
Confessors, his grand form, slowly disappearing from the 
horizon of the religious world, so levelled and so super- 
ficial, has ever appeared to me the type of an essentially 
theocratic character. With him the kingdom of God, 
however invisible to sense, was to be realised directly in 
practical experience; separation from the world was no 
mere preservation from evil, it was to be illustrated in the 



"THOU ART MY GOD! 1 ' 



253 



acts and habits of common life. The service of God was 
blended, in his eyes, with his daily history and deeds, his 
opinions, and special duties ; extending itself, moreover, 
to the minutest detail of ordinary existence. Hence, it 
came to pass that, isolated as he was from all ecclesiastical 
ties, he remained, notwithstanding the romantic enthu- 
siasm of his temperament, and the ardour of his imagina- 
tion, a practical, consistent, energetic believer ; thus it was 
that he escaped, on the one hand, the perils of a frigid 
intellectualism, as well as of mere visionary abstraction or 
sentimental pietism, on the other. For this he was kept in 
that living holiness which has its spring in an abiding 
realisation of an ever-present living God ; that apprehen- 
sion of the divine will as sovereign and absolute; that 
confidence in the divine love, the reality of which is in 
no way dependent on the manner in which our human 
feeling comes to acknowledge its greatness. To sum up, — 
that perfect clearness of understanding, that inextinguish- 
able assurance, arrived at only by those who have a 
believing vieAv of a salvation perfected for them, and 
despite their utter unworthiness. 

Satisfied with having thus dwelt on the central principle 
— the ruling thought, if I may so term it — in his system 
of faith, and referring my readers for details of his views 
to his numerous writings, I shall confine myself, in what 
remains of this memoir, to exhibiting him as a witness 
for the truth — a gospel missionary. In this capacity 
supremely he displayed the resources of that Christian life, 
the hidden mystery of which defies analysis or exposure, 
and which exhibited itself in his case, invested with all the 
lustre and endowments of an attractive and powerful nature. 



CHAPTEE II. 



EVANGELISATION IX GENEVA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 

Sow blessed seed, in hope 

Its precious fruit to see — 
In 'God's o^vn good appointed time ; 

That is the time for thee ! 

The year 1830 was a decisive date in my father's history. 
'Whilst his private life and that of his family expanded, 
while his testimony came by degrees to exercise a definite 
influence, and even to hold a fixed place in the public 
life of Geneva, he continued to occnpy an increasingly 
isolated position in that section of the religions world iden- 
tified with the revival. This circumstance was, however, 
largely compensated for by the growing activity which he 
displayed both in Geneva as a witness and defender of 
gospel truth, and abroad as a preacher and missionary. 

In 1829 he bought a piece of ground adjoining his pro- 
perty, and added it to the garden he had occupied up to 
that time, in which his chapel stood. Then he exchanged 
a small abode on the public road for a much more con- 
venient dwelling, in the centre of a large walled enclosure. 
There, for thirty-five years, he lived with his numerous 
family in a retreat which, situated though it was in the 



JOY IN THE DWELLING: OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 255 



immediate vicinity of the town, was nevertheless entirely 
withdrawn from the tumult and excitement of the outer 
world. Sufficiently extensive to afford us good air, exer- 
cise, and even privacy, with flower-borders and orchards 
adjoining, and fresh *and peaceful shades, — this garden of 
the Pre-Beni, with its chapel and school, was, as it were, to 
us a sort of world in itself, in which the childhood and 
youth of the youngest of us were passed ; while with it our 
father's life in Geneva was more exclusively associated. 
Subsequently, as we began to drop off, and establish our- 
selves in foreign countries, his position became gradually 
isolated. At the time of which we are speaking, however, it 
did but secure to him that entire liberty which he increas- 
ingly needed for his various undertakings. There, too, it 
was that he displayed the greatest vigour and activity- 
Surrounded by his children ; his once often-failing health 
now gradually recruited ; he received visits more frequently 
than ever from strangers distinguished for their personal 
piety, or for the place they occupied in the religious world. 
Yet he could not but feel painfully conscious of his isolated 
position with reference to his Genevese brethren. After 
having withdrawn, unhesitatingly, and even with a certain 
• eagerness, from a clergy which appeared to him to oppose 
gospel truth, he felt himself constrained, to the end of his 
life, to stand more or less apart from those whom he 
regarded as his brethren in the faith. 

We have just seen how his position, in reference to those 
whose work had preceded his in the first revival, may be 
explained. As for the new movement which has been 
occasionally styled the second evangelical revival in Geneva, 
my father had watched it from its birth. Its success was 



256 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAK 



in a great measure due to the decisive spirit in which he 
had originated it* Yet these men, honouring as they did, 
in his person, the decided testimony to evangelical truth, 
never thought of uniting themselves to him for the work 
which they inaugurated with so much enthusiasm. It 
was evident, especially during the earliest years, that they 
carefully avoided anything which might lead to the opinion 
that their operations were connected with his. 

At first glance, it would seem surprising that this could 
have been the case. As a matter of fact, the establish- 
ment of the Evangelical Society in 1831, with its oratories, 
and soon afterwards with its school of theology, was but in 
reality, after all, — with such a wider scope as a com- 
mittee composed chiefly of laymen and men influenced by 
their position could avail for,- — the realisation of what had 
been undertaken fifteen years before by the young ministers 
of the first revival, and more particularly by my father. 

Moreover — to refer only to the later movement — none of 
the men who were at the head of it refused him their 
esteem and respect. He was even personally connected 
with the three ecclesiastics whose names had already secured 
well-merited fame. We have heard him say that Galland 
and Gaussen had been the friends and models of his youth, 
As for Merle D'Aubigne, who had just arrived from abroad, 
he put himself into immediate communication with my 
father, and continued to be to him, and to his family after 
him, an invariably kind and faithful friend. 

* M. Gaussen remarked to my mother at the time, in reply to her expres- 
sions of s}Tnpathy with reference to the difficulties he was experiencing, 
" What are they when compared with those which your dear husband has 
been called upon to encounter ! He broke up the path in which we are 
simply called upon to follow." 



" the oratory:' 



257 



Malan, on his part, so far from standing aloof from all 
that was going on, recognised the first beginnings of the 
revival, and followed all its vicissitudes with the liveliest 
interest. He was identified with it in heart and thought 
by his prayers, and by the many testimonies of his 
brotherly regard. For him and his, the establishment of the 
Oratory had been a great event — the expansion of our sphere 
of daily life, till then painfully contracted — the end of years 
in which their name alone had placed them outside all social 
relations in this little country. From its commencement, 
he sent his children to the new meetings, just as after- 
wards, on several occasions, he made his sons follow the 
course of the new school. All these things considered, 
however, it was but natural that his relations, in the 
earliest years of the movement, especially with the Evan- 
gelical Society, should be limited to simple personal inter- 
course. When it started, indeed, the congregation of the 
Oratory was in precisely the same position with regard to 
the National Church as that assumed by my father before 
1824; in other words, while, in the matter of preaching, it 
was separated, in every other respect it continued with it. 
So that it felt the importance of carefully avoiding any 
course that might tend to change the position it desired to 
maintain into one of open secession. 

It is true that in 1835, by celebrating the Lord's 
Supper, it took the first step towards the establishment of 
a distinct church. But the men who directed its affairs 
had no desire, even at that time, to be confounded with 
the small Church of Testimony, which was held to be in a 
position of ultra dissent. Moreover, the members of the 
new church belonged to quite a different class of society 

R 



258 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



from that which, had recruited the ranks of the movers in 
the first revival. 

That work, indeed, had stood in no need whatever of 
external support. Having from the very outset developed 
considerable proportions, it soon became the centre of the 
religious evangelical movement in Geneva, and of a more 
extended mission abroad. Union with my. father, espe- 
cially, so far from presenting itself to the founders of the 
Evangelical Society as a step likely to add a new element 
of power to the influence they already exercised, could 
appear to them in no other light than as a measure useless 
in itself, and which would have inevitably compromised 
them. 

The fact is, that neither my father nor the men of the 
evangelical party dreamt of it. We have seen what his 
sentiments were on this point, and how he held to the 
view that it was wrong to destroy that diversity which, in 
his eyes, was the expression of a divine purpose, for the 
sake of building up external unity. Besides, in this 
special case, his convictions with regard to attentive dis- 
cipline of a flock, and, above all, his scruples on that 
subject which constituted in his eyes the purity of evan- 
gelical dogma, would have of themselves sufficed to pre- 
vent his uniting with his brethren of the Evangelical 
Society, except in the mutual interchange of fraternity and 
regard : — a union which subsisted between them from the 
very beginning, increasing year by year. 

Afterwards, undoubtedly, in 1849, when the congrega- 
tion of the Oratory, which, for fourteen years had com- 
municated outside the National Church, showed a desire 
to unite themselves with the old seceders for the sake of 



HOME WORK. 



259 



forming jointly an Evangelical Church of Geneva, it 
might have been reasonably expected that the Eglise du 
Teinoignage, reduced as it was to a very small number, 
would be unwilling to hold back from a movement which 
was uniting all those in Geneva with whom it was in 
communion. AVe shall see, when the time comes, why 
it remained separate. 

Let us revert for a moment to the time immediately 
following the crisis which marked the history of that 
small conQreo'ation in 1830. 

When its founder saAV his work, as a pastor, suddenly 
diminished in importance, he redoubled his activity as a 
preacher and gospel witness at Geneva and abroad. This, 
with his literary labours, which were never interrupted, 
constituted from that time the occupation of his life. Let 
us turn our present attention, therefore, to his work in 
Geneva, beginning with a description of what he was, 
for more than thirty years, as a preacher in his own 
chapel. 

It was, as we have already seen, in November 1818 that 
he began to preside over the small "meetings" which 
were forming around him, after his exclusion from the 
national pulpit. Erom that time, up to November 1863, 
(that is, for forty-five years,) he never passed a single Sun- 
day (with a few rare exceptions, when he was ill, or on an 
evangelising tour) without mounting the pulpit, at first 
three times a-day ; while he continued the weekly prayer- 
meetings, till fatigue and the infirmities of age compelled 
him to give them up. 

In his earlier days, especially before his chapel was 
built, in 1820, he held four of these meetings a- week. 



260 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAK 



After 1830 he reduced the number to two, and eventually 
to one, which he continued till he settled at Yandceuvres 
in 1859. These prayer-meetings were devoted to familiar 
expositions of the Scriptures. 

It would be difficult to form an idea of his activity as a 
preacher. I have before me his MS. notes of all his 
sermons from 1818 to 1821, from which it appears that 
that which he delivered on the occasion of the dedication 
of his chapel was his one hundred and eighty-seventh. In 
this, w r e may almost say that he resembled such men as 
Whitfield and Wesley in England, or Q-ossner and Lindl, 
his contemporaries, in Catholic Germany. Not only dur- 
ing his missionary journeys was he called upon to preach 
several days in succession, and several times a-day, but in 
Geneva even, he had, in addition to the afternoon sermon 
in which he addressed himself to a mixed congregation, a 
more elementary and more methodised exposition in the 
form of a catechism.* This service, though particularly 
intended for the young, was none the less regularly 
attended by numerous adults. At its close, (it was held 
at ten) a " pastoral assembly " met — comprising, generally, 
members of the Church, gathered for his exhortations, or 
mutual edification.-f- Then, too, he had an evening ser- 

* I find, for instance, in his French mission in 1836, he preached fifty- 
times before he reached Perpignan, from the 12th April to the 31st of 
May, while in his mission to the same county in 1841 he preached one 
hundred and fifty-four times from the 3d of February to 'the 30th May. 
(See Quatre-vingt Jours oVun Missionaire, p. 338.) Let me observe here 
that he seldom gave the same sermon twice (I only find one or two 
instances of his doing so), and it will be seen what pains he must have 
taken in his daily preparation. 

t The deacons' meetings, when the business of the Church was dis- 
cussed in his presence, were held during the week. 



CONSCIENTIOUS PREPARATION. 261 



vice which he held during the first years of his ministry 
in the asylum already referred to. On the first Sunday of 
each month he celebrated the communion, generally after 
the morning service. In addition to this, for a long 
period, several of the surrounding families having ex- 
pressed a wish to participate in his family worship, he met 
them every morning in summer in his chapel at eight 
o'clock, and in the winter in his schoolroom. 

It would not be the truth to infer from this vast activity, 
that he was comparatively careless in preparing his dis- 
courses. At first he never entered the pulpit without 
having previously written the whole of his discourse. 
Soon after 1821 he found he had not time for this, so he 
contented himself with noting down the heads, writing 
only the most important passages. Later still, when he 
was led to pure extempore preaching, he never failed to 
prepare for it by a long period of meditation and prayer. 
However great his facility of utterance might be, however 
small the number of his hearers, his preaching ever 
appeared to him the most important act of his life. I 
frequently find in his notes of travel, at the moment when 
he is called upon to preach, a few words, occasionally a 
prayer, a lifting of the soul to God, which betray the 
depth of his feelings with regard to this duty. He 
prepared even the few words he addressed to us, night and 
morning, in family worship. As for his public preaching, 
the feelings I have referred to never weakened in intensity, 
not even during those years when Sunday after Sunday 
he addressed but a very small congregation, composed 
invariably of the same persons. 

Did he appear in the pulpit as the minister and witness 



262 



LIFE OF OJESAB MA LAN. 



of Jesus Christ, it was because he began by thoroughly 
realising that he actually was such : and to the very end 
of his life no one would have ventured to intrude into his 
study during the hours immediately preceding his pulpit 
ministrations. To this, too, must be attributed his invari- 
able custom of never taking; a meal till after his last 
service, when he joined, for ihe first time, the family 
circle. 

His very appearance in the pulpit was, in itself, remark- 
able. The calm and serene dignity of his demeanour, the 
animation of his expression, the placid and benevolent 
seriousness of his striking figure, — everything in short about 
him, arrested and riveted the attention. As soon as he 
opened his lips his hearers felt swayed, in spite of them- 
selves, by such a voice as enchains an audience, not so 
much by the depth of its volume as by its clear sympa- 
thetic tones. Even before he spoke the very sight of his 
noble head, with its early and abundant snow-white hair, 
never failed to attract attention, when, after slowly passing 
up the chapel, he mounted with thoughtful and measured 
tread the pulpit steps. 

After silent meditation, sometimes tolerably long, he 
commenced the service by his invariable invocation — 
" Que notre aide soit au nom de Dieu, le Pere, le Tils, et 
le Sainte Esprit, Amen ! " * After reading the com- 
mandments and the beautiful confession of sins in use in 

* " Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. Amen." Malan had from the first substituted this formula 
for the one in ordinary use in our churches, " Our help is in the name of 
God Who created heaven and earth ! " This substitution was, according to 
his idea, a kind of profession of that faith in the doctrine of the Trinity for 
which he considered he had been called upon to suffer. 



IN THE PULPIT. 



263 



our churches, he gave out oue of his hymns, "beginning to 
sing it generally himself, with a voice easily audible above 
the roll of the organ, and the strains of the congregation. 
Then followed a brief extempore prayer, and a portion of 
Scripture, before he announced his text and began his 
sermon. * 

His manner and delivery were natural, grave, pro- 
foundly earnest, and often enkindling and awe-inspiring : 
he was never affected or pompous. Exhibiting, in his 
whole mode of utterance, the perfect reality of his charac- 
ter, he avoided stereotyped phraseology, and never in- 
dulged in that sing-song, artificial tone of declamation, 
enough of itself to alienate the sympathies of the most 
favourably disposed congregation. To quote a favourite 
expression of the sainted Vinet, "he spoke, he did not 
preach." His exposition was always brief, rapid, and clear. 
Confining himself, as a rule, to indicating the idea which, 
as he used to say, preceded in his mind the proposition 
which formed the subject of his discourse, he would 
designate in a third point the consequences which the 
acceptance of that proposition involved. These three 
points thus laid down, he expanded them one after 
another with greater elaborateness than variety, which 
failed, hoAvever, to weary his hearers, because he never 
gave way to repetitions in the same discourse. His 
addresses received attention, if not by an invariable suc- 
cession of new ideas, at least by his perfect intelligibility 
as well as by the uniform clearness and precision with 

* This form of "worship has just been adopted in the Church of Geneva ; 
the only difference, at that time, consisted in the reading of a portion of 
Scripture by the preacher himself. 



264 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAX. 



which, his thoughts travelled to the mark indicated from 
the first. As a rule, it was not till after his three points 
had been discussed that he appealed directly to his hearers. 
Giving free scope to a powerful conviction, he became 
from that moment urgent, glorious, and vehement. Then 
it was especially that the orator betrayed himself — more 
than that, the popular orator — never, in his judgment, to 
be confounded with a careless, irreverent, or vulgar 
preacher. The sermon ended, there followed a prayer, 
taken for many years from the old liturgy of our churches. 
He then gave out a hymn, and, when the singing was over, 
dismissed the congregation* Such was the form of pub- 
lic worship in the " Eglise du Temoignage." Though 
after 1830 the number of regular worshippers had 
diminished, the congregation continued to comprise, 
especially during the summer, a large number of strangers. 
The sanctuary was pervaded by a refreshing atmosphere of 
silent adoration. Everything contributed to this ; — the 
position in the midst of a quiet garden, the habit of 
silence which my father had from the very first carefully 
impressed upon his congregation. f the style of the hymns 
sung there, and the manner in which they were sung, 

* As a rule, it was the beautiful doxology, " Agneau de Dieu, par Tes 
langueurs," p'Lamb of God, by Thy sufferings,") composed by himself in 
1S19 or 1820, which the congregation sung standing without the organ. 
That doxology was afterwards adopted by the National Churches of French 
Switzerland, who retained the beautiful air which he composed for it, but 
without its slow and solemn rhythm. 

+ Thus he interdicted all talking, even in the lowest possible tones, in the 
house of God. More than once a conversation, or whispering, or any want 
of decorum in his hearers, drew from him either a significant look or a 
sudden pause in his sermon — sometimes even a direct admonition from the 
pulpit. If any one went to sleep he did not hesitate, in the most natural 
manner, to request a neighbour to arouse him. 



A COMMUNION SUNDAY. 



265 



contrasting so forcibly with those in use in the National 
Churches — above all, the profound seriousness and unre- 
mitting earnestness which breathed through the preacher's 
words — everything combined to produce the spectacle of a 
congregation, sometimes of a very mixed character, leaving 
the worship of God Sunday after Sunday with no trace of 
eagerness, the result of fatigue impatiently endured, no 
hubbub of a thousand voices, in reaction from the monoto- 
nous tones of a minister, but, on the contrary, in that 
thoughtful silence indicative of the universal desire to 
retain in its integrity the deep impression that had been 
produced. 

Thus it was that, through a long succession of years, 
the Church of Testimony saw many happy days, while it 
remained, to the very end, the scene of sacred emotions 
and much spiritual blessing. As an example, apart from 
my own recollections, I will give my readers an account of 
a communion Sunday at " Pre-Beni." It is derived from 
a recently published narrative by Dr A. Ostertag, of the 
Missionary Institute of Bale, of a visit he paid my father, 
for a few days, in 1836.* 

As I shall have occasion shortly to recur to this descrip- 
tion (as striking from its evident truthfulness as from the 
courteous sympathy which it breathes), I will content my- 
self at present with a short extract — 

" It was on the 4th of September that Malan gave us a 
truly exalted sermon on the kingdom of Christ ; and, on 
the afternoon of the same day, an even more striking dis- 
course, full of rare unction, on the words, 'Kejoice, that 

* It appeared in the number, for March 1867, of the " Blbelbliitter " of 
the Evangelical Mission Magazine of Bale. 



266 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAX. 



your names are written in heaven.' But my richest 
experience was reserved for this same Sunday, which was 
that of the monthly communion. 

"Intending to participate in the rite, I entered the 
chapel (its windows gleaming through the trees of the 
garden) with a heart profoundly drawn towards God, the 
mighty and living God. The congregation was singularly 
numerous. I was motioned, in common with an Euglish 
clergyman, who happened to he visiting the place, to take 
my place on a reserved seat. 

" The preacher commenced by wishing us all ' the grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellow- 
ship of the Holy Ghost' After a short and earnest 
prayer he read the loth of St John ; then, in a few words 
of most spiritual exposition, he pointed out to us what the 
Saviour' said of the love which His disciples should cherish 
towards Himself. This opening portion of the worship 
closed with a fervent prayer, breathing confession, trust, 
and thanksgiving. Then, after reading the words of the 
institution of the Supper from 1 Cor. xi., he gave a brief 
explanation of the Sacrament, based upon the Calvinistic 
view, which approaches closely to the Lutheran. 

" Then taking the bread in his hand, he broke it, invoking 
the name of God ; he next approached the Euglish clergy- 
man and myself, and spoke to us of blessed and holy com- 
munion with Christ, of fidelity in the pastoral work, and 
of brotherly love ; after which he gave us the bread, then 
the cup, — partaking with us. The recollection of that 
moment will never leave me, so full was it of heavenly 
light and life. 

" He now invited the elders and deacons to approach 



SPEAKING TO THE MASSES. 



267 



the communion table, and distributed the bread and wine 
to them, exhorting them to love of Christ, and faithful 
discharge of their trust. 

" It was not till after this that the deacons proceeded to 
carry the sacred elements from seat to seat. A solemn 
silence reigned through the assembly, broken only, from 
time to time, by words of hearty exhortation from his 
lips. The distribution over, the solemn celebration finished 
with prayer and a hymn, after a few words pointing out 
that the blessing of the Supper extends to the eternal life 
of the soul." 

It was not, however, in the presence, and under the 
restraints, of his chapel congregation that my father was 
able to pour out his fullest power of speech. Though 
gifted with extraordinary powers of successful extempore 
utterance, he was only thoroughly at home with a mass of 
eager and intent hearers. Then, especially, his thoughts 
(always intelligible and perspicuous) clothed themselves 
with impromptu illustrations, the appropriateness of which 
left an indelible impression on the mind. Endowed, in a 
high degree, with that sympathetic fibre which enables 
the speaker to read the hearts of the listeners, he possessed 
no less that quickness which foresees objections, anticipat- 
ing or refuting them as they presented themselves to the 
hearer he sought to persuade. 

It will be inferred from this that he soon betook himself 
to the work of addressing the masses, and that his own 
experience of divine life would only strengthen a necessity 
which arose out of his character and special gifts. Thus 
in 1820, when on a pedestrian tour in Switzerland, in the 
course of which he preached in all the towns through 



268 



LIFE OF CJESAFl MALAX. 



which he passed, I see that at Correndelin he preached 
in the public square. His ardent faith made him seize 
eagerly on every opportunity of witnessing to the gospel. 
Hot content with doing this daily, in private conversations 
which he was an adept at promoting, he knew perhaps 
better than any — at all events he was among the foremost 
of those, in the midst of whom he lived — to put aside, 
when necessity arose, the traditional custom which re- 
stricts the delivery of divine truth to special times and 
places. Disposed as he was, by the very reverence of his 
character, to impress, invariably, the highest solemnity on 
the particular worship he directed, the all-important 
element, with him, resided not in imposing ceremonial 
accessories, but in the grandeur of the message he had to 
deliver. This explains how, at the time when he was 
interdicted from entering the pulpit of the JSTational 
Church, a magistrate having suggested the possibility of 
the government prohibiting him from erecting a chapel, he 
did not scruple to say that, in that case, " he would hire a 
boat and preach on the lake." 

This reply, mentioned by De Goltz, reminds me of an 
occurrence of which I was an eyewitness in 1828 or 1829, 
which took place on one of our lake steamboats. Having 
received the captain's consent, my father, with a few 
people round him, mounted a pile of cables in the forepart 
of the vessel, Xew Testament in hand, and invited those 
present to gather round and hear the good Word of God. 
I see him now erect above the listening crowd around him. 
I seem to hear his penetrating voice borne upon the fresh 
breeze of the spring morning, our beautiful shores stretch- 



TRUE YORE-FELLOWS. 



269 



ing out before us. What is more, I well remember a 
gentleman standing next to me (who had betrayed signs of 
very natural impatience at first at so unusual a scene) 
came up to my father after he had finished speaking, and 
grasping his hand with much fervour, addressed those 
present himself, declaring that his heart had apprehended 
the gospel for the first time, and that, from that day, he 
would avow himself its disciple. We shall have occasion, 
by and by, to recall more than one of these incidents, 
illustrative of the joyous earnestness of the first years of 
the revival. Afterwards, a declared opposition imposed 
its ceremonious proprieties. To the involuntary expres- 
sion (so to speak) of personal enthusiasm has succeeded 
an avowed antagonism which entrusts to a faction its ante- 
cedents, and the flag it has erected. This last characteris- 
tic was always foreign to my father's missionary zeal. 

With reference to that zeal, we cannot do better than 
insert here an extract from M. de Goltz, in which he refers 
to my father and F. Noeff. "They possessed," he says, 
" mighty faith and ability, were thoroughly men of prayer, 
and displayed a boldness in bearing witness to the truth 
which brought down a signal blessing on their labours. 
Their individual influence was great ; they carried, wherever 
they went, the witness of Jesus Christ. They never missed 
an opportunity afforded by a walk or by an accidental 
meeting. They never heard a hostile word, they never 
took a journey, without finding or making an opportunity 
of speaking of their Saviour. Ever in His presence, they 
could not help feeling a holy interest in the souls which 
God threw in their way; nor did they mix with other' 



270 LIFE OF OMB AR MA LAN. 



men without availing themselves of every occasion for this 
work of soul-gathering.* 

" They had a passion for the conversion of souls," says 
M. Guizot, in speaking of the instruments of the revival 
generally, f " God ever in communication with man, with 
every man," he adds, " present to the actual life of each, 
and hereafter deciding his future destiny, the incalculable 
worth of every soul before God, and the paramount import- 
ance of the future which awaits it : — these are the convic- 
tions, the declarations comprised in that passion for the 
salvation of souls which filled the life of our Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself." 

These words exactly describe the sentiments which lay 
at the bottom of my father's missionary zeal. 

At the same time, it would be a mistake to imagine that 
he was entirely unmoved when he saw himself the object 
of envious looks, whisperings, or jeering smiles from a pre- 
judiced people ; or that he was not pained by the gross 
insults of the lower orders. In his own home, of course, 
in the Garden of the Pre-Beni (given to him by God as 
an asylum to hold his treasures), among those who came 
to him for light and teaching, — in his pulpit again, 
where he only looked upon himself as a minister of Jesus 
Christ, — he knew neither embarrassment nor hesitation. 
Yet we ought not to infer the absence of sensitive emotion 
from his composure of manner, imparted by the upright 
simplicity of his faith, and his courageous devotion to the 
service of Him Whom he loved to call " his good Master." 

* De Goltz, Gen. Eelig., p. 226. 

*t" "Reflections on the Actual State of the Christian Religion, 1st series. 
Meditation on the Christian Revival in France." 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



271 



In his first tract (Germain le Biicheron), written in 1819, 
lie says, " I have often fonnd it difficult to start a religions 
conversation with strangers." How frequently have I seen 
him, myself, bow down his head with an expression of 
keenest pain under public insults which followed him 
through so many years, almost every time he quitted the 
garden enclosure ! How often did he conceal from me, as 
though it were a wound refusing to be healed, the secret 
anguish he experienced at ever finding himself disowned, 
despised, misunderstood, by those whom he louged to con- 
vince of the love he bore them, and for whose spiritual 
enlightenment he ceased not to pour out his soul before 
God !" 

All these feelings vanished, however, when he was called 
upon to give his testimony to the gospel of salvation. 
Then he was Csesar Malan no longer ; he was the minister, 
the servant of a faith to which we all bow, the herald of 
Him AYho alone is to be honoured. Eternity, thencefor- 
ward, with eternal interests, eternal life and eternal death,- 
silenced at once all personal feelings and considerations. 

At the very outset of his career as a preacher of the 
gospel, he replied to a friend who expressed surprise at the 
firmness with which he had laid aside all his literary 
occupations, " My life is too short for that." * Nor is 
there anything in this sentiment to astonish those who 
have followed him through his daily career. There was, 
as it were, a pressure in it ; we feel that he hastened to 
work while it was day, and that, in his judgment, the only 
work which seemed worthy to engage his energies and his 
leisure was labour in the vineyard of the Father of the 

* Schickedantz. 



272 



LIFE OF CASSAB MALAR. 



family, — the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in the 
heart. 

This was the feeling that made him one of the bravest 
and most persevering witnesses of the gospel. Doubtless, 
what at first required from him an effort of will became, 
by degrees, a second nature. 

In the intimacies of private life he knew well how to 
lay aside the gravity of his public character. For my own 
part I never met any one whose conversation was more 
constantly varied, more intelligent, readier, or more ani- 
mated, at suitable times, with a frank good humour, and a 
gaiety of the best kind. But from the moment any appeal 
reached him unexpectedly, as a minister of the gospel, when- 
ever he found himself face to face with any one whom he 
had no expectation of seeing again at his leisure, he felt 
himself carried away by the thought thus uttered by an 
apostle of old, " Woe is me if I preach not the gospel ! " 

Setting aside, from that moment, every other considera- 
tion, he went straight to the mark : he addressed to the 
soul before him some one of those questions by which he 
knew so well how to break over all barriers, and seemed to 
penetrate with living force into the very spirit of his 
inquirers. Such questions from any other lips would have 
appeared most singular ; but they were submitted to, 
without protest, from him, in consequence of the impres- 
sion produced by the serious and at the same time affec- 
tionate anxiety, and perfect kindliness with which he pro- 
posed them. 

Not only, as he said himself, was he thoroughly con- 
vinced " that a single conversation is often more efficacious 
than many sermons," but he took much interest also in 



A MISSIONARY INCIDENT. 



273 



distributing religious tracts, and lost no opportunity of 
doing so.* 

Nor was it merely abroad that my father acted the 
missionary. At Geneva his daily walks, even to the very 
end, were availed of for this kind of dealing with individual 
souls, of which it might be said, among us at least, that he 
alone knew the secret, and for similar instances of which 
we should have to betake ourselves to the religious world 
in England or America. 

Many examples of this work may be found recorded by 
himself, either in his various tracts, or in the accounts 
he published on his return from some of these missionary 
tours.-]- I could not undertake to repeat here what he 
has himself related, but I may be permitted, before passing 
on to an account of his evangelising expeditions, to mention 
a circumstance which came under my own observation 
about the year 1840, in a pedestrian trip which I made 
with him, in company with a young Englishman who was 
staying with us at the time. 

My father wished to revisit with us the picturesque 
gorges, north of the Jura, which he had explored in his 
youth, and remembered with enthusiasm ever since. Tak- 
ing the boat from Geneva to Lausanne, we went on foot to 
Yverdon, no opportunity being missed by him of proclaim- 
ing the gospel. On the lake of Neufchatel I remember well 

* " Quatre-vingt Jours," &c., p. 390, and elsewhere. 

+ See for example the chapter headed Bible Anecdotes, in his "Gospel 
Sowings," (1830) ; the preface of his "Grains de Seneve ;" tracts, such as 
"Germain le Bucheron," "la Valaisanne," "L'epi glane sur une grande 
route," " Ce que Dieu garde est bien garde," "La Route perdue," &c, &c. 
See also several pages in his "True Child's Friend," and in "Twenty 
Swiss Pictures:" some episodes in "Can I join the Church of Rome?" 
and especially his descriptions of his missions, to be referred to by and by. 

S 



274 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAX. 



sketching Mm seated in the bow of the boat, with a young 
man at his side, to whom he was speaking about his soul. 
His Xew Testament was in his hand, while a mountaineer, 
leaning against the gunwale, let his pipe go out as he 
listened to him. 

A few days after, we climbed, one glorious evening, the 
road ascending from Bienne, and following the torrent of 
the Suze. Beaching the inn at Sonceboz, my father, as 
he unhooked his knapsack, said to the landlady that he 
intended having evening prayers with us after supper, and 
that if she and her household liked to come they would be 
welcome. " We don't require that sort of thing here," she 
replied, apparently very much pressed with business, add- 
ing one or two expressions of impatience. Thereupon my 
father forthwith resumed knapsack and staff, saying to me, 
as he did so, " Do you feel up to another hour's walking ? " 
little heeding the amazement of our would be-hostess, who 
was anxious to detain us. " Come, boys, I cannot pass the 
night under a roof where there is no desire for prayer, and 
no fear of God;' 

A few minutes afterwards, as we were following the road 
leading from Sonceboz through pine woods to the defile of 
Pierre- Pertuis, we came up to some waggons laden with 
planks, which were going in our direction. My father 
called to me, and pointing out a tall young man who was 
driving the first of them, gave me a tract, asking me to 
hand it to him from him. The driver thanked me very 
politely, and I rejoined my travelling companion, who 
had stopped for a moment to admire a particular part of 
the landscape. In a few moments, however, the man to 
whom I had given the tract, and who had set to work to 



GENTLE LEADINGS. 



275 



read it aloud to his mates, came up to me, and asked me 
to request my father to explain to them a few things in it 
which they could not understand. My father joined the 
men, and we left them coming on slowly after us, and 
keeping alongside of the waggons. Shortly afterwards, 
when they had rejoined us, I overheard him, as he 
stretched out his hand to the man who had read the 
tract, inviting him and his companions to our evening 
worship at Tavannes. They promised to come, and 
kept their word. "Was it not the Lord who drew us 
away from Sonceboz ?" he asked me, when we were by 
ourselves. 

The next morning we started at the dawn of day. 
After having walked for about two hours, we went to a 
village inn to have some coffee. Whilst we were waiting 
for it, my father noticed that the young woman in attend- 
ance stopped from time to time to put her apron to her 
eyes. " You seem to be in trouble ? " he asked. " Alas, sir, 
only a few days ago I lost my poor husband, and of course 
I am very unhappy." Making room for her beside him 
on the form, " Come here, my poor woman," he said, " let 
me speak to you of the comforting promises of the gospel." 
He had not got far when his companion interrupted him 
by asking if she might go and fetch her friend Jeanette. 
" She will be delighted to hear you," she explained, " she 
too speaks to me very often of these good things." She 
soon returned with a young peasant, and we left my father 
alone with them. 

A moment afterwards, he beckoned to us through the 
window to go with him to visit Jeanette's father, who 
was lying ill, close by. We were conducted to a little 



276 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



wooden house, and into a large room, at the end of which, 
near the window, lay a white-haired old man. " Father," 
said she, " I have brought you a minister of the gospel.'* 
" God be praised," said the invalid, as my father seated 
himself at his side; soon discovering in him signs of 
genuine and touching piety. In the conversation which 
followed, he asked him how he had. arrived at a knowledge 
of his Saviour. " On this bed," he replied, " where I have 
lain for many years ; and through reading a book written 
by a Mr Malan of Geneva. Ah ! had I not been aged and 
infirm, I should long ago have gone there to see him. 
Look here, sir, you cannot think how earnestly I have 
entreated the Lord that I might see him before I died. 
For a long time I thought He would grant my desire, but 
I 'm afraid I shall have to give it up." I stole a glance at 
my father, who was sitting silently looking at his hands. 
" "What is the name of the book you refer to ?" he suddenly 
inquired as he raised his head. " Stay," was the reply, 
"here it is, it's always by me ;" and he drew from under 
his pillow a well-worn copy of one of the earliest editions 
of my father's hymns, and handed it to my father. " Do 
you sing any of these then ?" asked my father, as he 
turned over the leaves. " Oh, J eanette knows some of 
them ; she often sings them to me, and I derive pleasure 
and profit whenever I hear them," adding, as though 
speaking to himself, " If I could only see the dear gentle- 
man who wrote those beautiful hymns ; he must be a 
good Christian." 

" Listen, brother," said my father ; " these young gentle- 
men and I have just come from Geneva." "You have 
come from Geneva? then perhaps you have seen M. 



NUNC DIM1TTIS. 



277 



Malan ?" " Certainly I have ; we all know him well ; and 
I can assure you, that if he were here he would remind 
you that he has only been a feeble and imperfect instru- 
ment of good to you ; and he would speak to you, above 
all, not of himself, a poor sinner as you are, but of the 
eternal grace and perfection of our blessed Lord." The 
conversation lasted a few moments longer; my father 
prayed; then, when we had sung together one of the 
hymns which Jeanette knew, he prepared to leave, telling 
her that he was to preach the next day, Sunday, at Moutiers. 
When he had got to the cloor, however, he stopped, and 
returning once more to the bed where the old man was 
lying with folded hands, said to him, with emotion, " My 
father, God Himself to Whom you will so soon depart, 
has granted your prayer. I am Malan of Geneva; your 
brother in the faith of our blessed Saviour." 

The poor old man, fixing his streaming eyes upon him 
in a long and ardent gaze, and slowly raising his trembling 
hands, exclaimed, " Bless me, bless me before I die ! You, 
whom I have so long prayed God to send to me, bless 
me noAv that I have the joy of seeing you !" Falling on 
his knees at the bedside, my father replied, in tones which 
betrayed his deep feeling, " You ought rather to bless me, 
for you are old enough to be my father. But all blessing 
comes from God alone ; let us once more ask it of Him 
together." And, folding in his arms the lowly brother 
whom he felt he should never see again till they met in 
the better country, he invoked upon him " the peace which 
Jesus gives," and we left the hamlet. 

The next morning he preached at Moutiers, and in the 
afternoon at the village of Grandval. To the former place 



278 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



came Jeanette, with, her friend, and quite a crowd from their 
village, a distance of more than three leagues, to hear the 
foreign minister. 

My story may have seemed a little long, but I trust I 
shall be forgiven for having described in its details, (pre- 
serving as far as possible the very words of the conversa- 
tion,) a scene which made so deep an impression upon me 
in my youthful days. 

An incident which occurred the day after the sermon at 
Moiitiers may serve to illustrate the easy and affectionate 
manner with which my father was in the habit of addressing 
the first person whom he might chance to meet. As he stood 
behind me watching while I was sketching some rocks at the 
opening of an abrupt gorge, a tall old man passed us on his 
way. I said to my father, — why, I cannot tell, — " I feel as 
if that man was a pious Christian." " Nothing easier than 
to find out," he replied; and quickly turning to the 
stranger, said smilingly, "Will you take my hand, sir, if I 
offer it ?" "Eh, sir," said the old man, removing his hat, 
" you do me a great honour." " And what if it were in the 
name of the Lord Jesus that I offer it ?" " Then give me 
both your hands, my beloved brother," he exclaimed. A 
long conversation followed between them, and we saw him 
frequently afterwards in a neighbouring village, and found 
that he was well known through all the country side for 
his gentle and active piety. 

Let me give here one or two additional illustrative in- 
cidents extracted from his correspondence, which teems, 
especially during his missionary journeys, with passages 
well worthy of being preserved on record. 

" In a town in the north of France," he writes to a 



CONVERSATIONS. 



279 



friend, in 1 849, " a shoeblack of a certain age, to whom I 
had applied one rainy, muddy day, said, in an undertone, 
as he looked at my boots, 'Faith, and they want it too !' 
'Not so much as our souls need the blood of Christ,' I 
rejoined, solemnly. The shoeblack started, ' I beg your 
pardon, sir,' he said. On receiving his answer, he recom- 
menced his task, saying to himself, ' I never heard of 
that before !' He heard it then at all events, clearly; and 
appeared to listen eagerly." 

A letter to my mother, dated Heidelberg, 9th Sept. 
1 849, contains the following : — 

" The country is overrun with Prussian soldiery, and 
two captains and an Israelite have been my fellow-travellers 
the whole day. They talked a great deal, all the way 
along, of their campaign of Baden, and they noticed here 
and there the battle-fields, redoubts, burnt dwellings, &c. 
I held my tongue. At length, after about three hours of 
it, when they had warmed up a little in their description, 
I said to the Israelite, ' Tell them from me that in heaven 
there will be no more war.' He did so ; upon which one of 
the captains remarked to me, ' Yes, yes ; but if there were 
Baden men there, there would be no peace.' ' There, there 
will be neither Baden nor Prussian,' was the reply, £ but 
children of peace — the saved.' 

" A deep silence succeeded the military storm. Then I 
said to the Jew, ' Tell them the Lord Jesus calls Himself 
the Prince of Peace.' Again he complied, very seriously ; 
whereupon the captain next to me turned round and 
said, in an undertone, ' If we were lovers of order, there 
would be no more war.' ' Eather,' said I, ' if we were 
Christians. But it is not so : we kill one another, though 



280 



LIFE OF CjESAR MALAN. 



we are men, and of the same blood !' He sighed, and 
pressed my hand. Thenceforth the conversation was 
quieter, and when we parted, we wished one another a 
pleasant journey." 

These ways of proceeding were the perfectly natural 
result, in my father's case, of heart impulse. Moreover, 
however much surprise he might produce at first by 
broaching at once the most sacred topics connected with 
the hidden life of the soul, I do not think any one ever 
resented his conduct as an offence. As far as he was con- 
cerned, the motive which prompted him was a constant, 
earnest desire to be the means of bringing souls to the 
knowledge of Jesus Christ, This was an aim he never 
lost sight of. How often, as we paused in our solitary 
walks on one of the eminences which gird our town, and 
suffered our gaze to wander over the villages and hamlets 
visible on every side ; how often have I heard him arrest 
the expression of the admiration, with which the sight of 
our beautiful country never failed to inspire him, exclaim- 
ing, " If we might only hope that each of those villages 
and dwellings contained if it were but one who knew and 
loved the Lord Jesus !" 

And then I was led to ask myself how a nature like his 
could endure the thought that the people over whom his 
heart yearned so lovingly were so effectually deprived of 
the blessing of salvation ; till I remembered that Ms soul 
was in constant submission to that silent obedience of 
faith which taught him to abjure either the thought or 
desire of penetrating into what he held to be a mystery 
known only to God. I recalled, too, that child-like trust 
which led him to believe that the glory of God would 



IN ENGLAND. 



281 



appear as fully one day in what is at present concealed, 
as it does now in what is revealed. 

With reference to what I have just recorded, the reader 
will understand that to attempt a thorough description of 
the missionary activity of my father's life would involve a 
record of each day's history, from the time that that absorb- 
ing passion just referred to, took possession of his soul. 
Eeserving, then, allusion, as occasion may arise, to vari- 
ous evangelising expeditions, I shall confine myself at 
present to a mention of his principal tours with this object. 

Up to the year 1830 he scarcely ever preached abroad, — 
except in England, in 1822, 1826, and 1828. 

When he went there in 1822 he had no idea of preach- 
ing in public. He was, as it were, forced to do so, in 
spite of himself. A clergyman with whom he had dined 
introduced him, without previous warning, into a room 
where a numerous company was assembled, saying to him, 
" These persons are assembled here for the purpose of 
hearing you." My father did the best he could. Soon 
afterwards he managed to preach easily in English. 

It was to the connections which he formed thus early 
with the religious community in England, more especially 
with the evangelical party, and dissenters and Presby- 
terians of Scotland, that we must attribute the special 
direction which, from a remote period, his religious habits 
assumed. Eor example, it was there that he acquired those 
strict views which he maintained all his life, on the sanctity 
of the Lord's day; and by which he was distinguished even 
from the other adherents of the revival of Geneva. It 
was there, too, that he acquired that freedom from conven- 
tional trammels which accompanies zeal for the propaga- 



282 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAK 



tion of the faith among English believers. To the same 
quarter he referred the habit of publicly distributing 
tracts, of holding meetings in other places besides churches, 
and, generally, that independence with reference to pre- 
scribed forms, which characterises the evangelical party in 
free England. There, too, he made acquaintance with the 
writings of the Anglican theologians of the seventeenth 
century, which were popular at the time among those 
with whom he was brought into special contact, and which 
continued to be amongst his favourite reading. 

The visit to Great Britain, in which he came most pro- 
minently forward, was that which he paid in 1826, and to 
which I have already had occasion to refer. As regards his 
missionary work there, I find the following in the preface 
of a little work published by one of his hearers, and con- 
taining notes of some of his sermons delivered in Scotland.* 

After premising that it would be impossible to find 
simpler and more powerful setting forth of the confidence 
wdiich the believer is called upon to exercise in what God 
declares, the author, quoting an expression from an old 
English theologian, goes on to say that Malan's merit as a 
preacher consisted in bringing believers to accumulate two 
heaps — one of their merits, the other -of their sins ; and, 
to leave them both, to take refuge in Christ Himself. He 
has no hesitation in affirming that " the manner in which 
Malan presented evangelical truth, recalled to his hearers 
the days of Luther and Eutherford." 

My mother has mentioned to me one more incident in 

* " Recollections of the Rev. C. Malan, D.D., of Geneva, being notes of 
sermons preached by him in Edinburgh, in May and June 1826." James 
Nisbet, 1827. 



ROWLAND HILL. 



283 



connection with the impression which he produced, in his 
public speaking at that time, on men capable of forming a 
judgment. He had just been preaching to an attentive 
congregation when he was stopped, on leaving the pulpit, 
by an old man, entirely unknown to him. " I bless God," 
said the stranger, " that I have this day heard Eomaine 
and Whitfield." On my father asking who it was that 
addressed him, " My name," answered the stranger, " is 
Eowland Hill ! " 

He continued in England for some months of the 
summer of 1833 and 1834. On that occasion he visited 
Ireland, where he stayed with his friend Lord Eoden. 
It was in that country that he was happily instrumental 
through one of those lucid expressions inspired by his 
faith in the sovereign grace of God, in giving light to the 
soul of a Methodist lady whose mind had been affected 
by the dread of eternal condemnation. 

In 1839 he again visited London and Edinburgh, passing 
through Holland, where he had already been, on his return 
in 1834. 

I append a few details of his journey in 1839, which I 
have gathered from the letters he wrote at the time to one 
of my sisters in Scotland. I may mention it was at the 
time of the revival in Kelso : — 

"Sept. 1839. — After having preached an hour and a 
quarter at Dundee, I had to speak for the greater part of 
an hour to nearly two thousand persons, silent and im- 
pressed. It seemed to me as though the Word of the 
Lord were descending upon their souls like rain on the 
mown grass. What joy my God has given me this even- 
ing ! My mission has been blessed! I have been wel- 



284 



LIFE OF CAESAB MALAN. 



corned everywhere as a messenger of peace ! I preached 
five times at Kelso. The last time the same scene occurred 
which I had experienced at Dundee. After the blessing 
every one sat down again, and remained, — their eyes fixed 
on the pulpit. We understood that they wanted more 
spiritual nourishment, and I spoke again, at some length. 
It was very solemn." 

A few clays later, from Edinburgh, "My good Master 
has strengthened me here. I have been enabled to preach 
twice to large, attentive, and thoughtful congregations. 
Days of strength, power, and blessing." 

Later still, on board ship at sea, " I return to Pre-Beni 
full of gratitude. Our gracious heavenly Father has 
singularly blessed my journey. My soul glorifies Him, and 
I recall, with peculiar joy, the days I have spent in Eng- 
land and Scotland." 

His last expedition, — and not an unimportant one, — to 
Great Britain was in 1 843 ; on the occasion of the Secession 
of the Eree Church of Scotland. 

Meanwhile he had for a long time directed his attention 
to the continent. In England he associated, almost ex- 
clusively, with the religious world. What he longed for, 
however, above everything, was the privilege of carrying 
the Word of God where it was entirely unknown. It was 
this desire that urged him to undertake, in 1836, his first 
evangelistic tour in France. He returned to that country 
in the spring of 1841. In 1842 he bent his steps towards 
Belgium and Holland. In 1845 he visted the churches of 
Holland again, and after returning to France in 1849, in 
1852, and in 1853, and visiting Elberfeld in 1856, he 
achieved his last missionary journey, that same year, to 



SAVOY. 



285 



the Vaudois Valleys in Piedmont. Already his advancing 
years disqualified him from any longer undertaking alone the 
fatigues of a missionary expedition, and in this visit of his 
to the Churches he had so long desired to see, and which 
he regarded as the ancient home of his sires, he was 
compelled to have one of my sisters with him. 

It may be asked how it was that his zeal never sent him 
in the direction of Savoy. The fact is that he had endea- 
voured, at an early period, to penetrate it with gospel light, 
but, as is well known, the ' Jesuits were paramount there 
in those clays. Indeed, at that time, my brothers and I 
were always especially careful to take with us a Greek 
Testament when we crossed the frontiers, for fear of 
being involved in any difficulty by the discovery of a 
French New Testament in our knapsacks. Let me 
mention an incident which occurred when I was a child, 
and which will serve to show to what extent our fears 
w r ere justified. 

One of my father's boarders, about 1820, had given a 
Bible to a Savoyard of Chablais, who was able to read. 
It would seem that he had even employed him to intro- 
duce a few into the province. The circumstance having 
come to the knowledge of the authorities, the unfortunate 
man was dragged from his home by carabineers, and 
conveyed to the galleys at Genes. It was in mid-winter, 
and his daughter, who, with her two little brothers, had run 
after the sledge-truck on which their father lay bound, 
being repulsed by the soldiers, begged her way towards 
Geneva. She died, however, of cold and wretchedness, 
before she reached it, and the younger of the two boys, 
having lost all trace of his brother, was taken home by a 



286 



LIFE OF CJESJB MALAN. 



gardener, who had seen him before at my father's. Many- 
years afterwards, when he was still in this man's service, 
he saw, on the road near the town, a traveller clothed in 
rags and covered with dust. The stranger, halting before 
the young man, asked him to direct him to the house of 
this very gardener. He took him there at once, and 
ascertained that the unfortunate wanderer was his father. 
The latter part of his punishment had been remitted, but 
he was almost reduced to idiocy by the sufferiugs he had 
had to undergo. 

This fact alone will suffice to show how difficult it was 
to introduce the gospel among a bigoted population, very 
few of whom, moreover, knew how to read. Notwith- 
standing this, however, my father happened one day to 
hear a Savoyard cure, with whom he had been conversing 
on their journey, complain of two pests which corrupted 
the youth of their village, one was emigration to Paris, and 
the other a certain M. Malan of Geneva, who spread the 
Bible and little heretical books in every direction. 

From before 1830, however, my father was compelled to 
keep out of Savoy altogether. Stopped by the gendarmerie 
at Chamounix, where he had been summoned by the illness 
of one of his boarders, and transported as a criminal to the 
head-quarters of the province, he owed his liberty solely to 
his firmness and presence of mind. He has recounted the 
circumstance himself in pages of the greatest interest, add- 
ing details which always encouraged him to hope that God 
had permitted the arrest for the promotion of the spiritual 
good of the officer who had been charged with it.* 

During his missionary voyages, he not only preached in 

* See " Quatre-vingt Jours," &c, p. 2S1. 



HIS IDEAL MISSIONARY. 



287 



all the pulpits open to him, whatever the denomination to 
which they belonged, but he also applied his special atten- 
tion to endless details of work in individual cases. Though 
in many places his efforts led to the formation of a tract 
society or the inauguration of fresh schemes of evangelisa- 
tion, still his special work lay with separate souls. He 
was far more the instrument of conversion to individuals 
than of foundation to Churches. The ideal ever before 
him was, as he said,* that of "missionaries travelling alone, 
skilled to accost those whom they met, and to offer to 
them, with the courteous greeting of genuine charity, small 
religious tracts, or even the sacred volume itself; thus 
leaving with them preachers to accompany them through 
their daily occupations, and appeal to them at home." This 
ideal no one perhaps approached so nearly as himself. 

Some of his journeys were originated solely by himself; 
though the greater part of the time, he was delegated or 
invited by various Churches and religious societies. In- 
variably, however, especially after 1830, we see him avail- 
ing himself eagerly of every opportunity of escape from 
the confined atmosphere which surrounded him in Geneva, 
that he might seek out populations thirsting for the living 
Word ; opened hearts ; and numerous and awakened con- 
gations. 

While he was away from home, and his place in his chapel 
supplied by his brethren at Geneva, his letters to our 
mother enabled us to follow his career week by week. His 
return, announced beforehand and impatiently expected, 
was a fete-day for his family. He took out of his travel- 

* " Quatre-vingt Jours," &c, p. 390. See also the Preface of the 
£< Grains de Sen eve." 



283 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



ling-bag small presents for the youngest of us, which excited 
their wonder — sea shells, foreign playthings, a few chil- 
dren's "books not to be had at Geneva — while his arrival 
seemed to infuse new life into the house. As for himself, 
he came back to us happy, refreshed, encouraged ; bringing 
with him manuscripts ready for printing, or hurried notes 
which he revised, or a concise account of the mission for 
his Church, or a more detailed report for those who had 
sent him. 

During the time immediately subsequent to his return, 
he was surrounded and cheered by the remembrances con- 
veyed in numerous letters from those he had visited in the 
course of his travels. It is in reading these letters, perhaps 
even more than in hearing his account, that a precise idea 
of the effect of his ministry is to be arrived at. In England 
and Holland, where he was specially called upon to address 
those of a certain amount of educational proficiency, these 
recollections of his labours subsisted perhaps longer in the 
minds of his hearers, taking the form, however, in the 
majority of instances, of an intellectual interest in his 
doctrine. In Belgium and France, where he came more 
directly in contact with the masses, the impression he 
produced was more general ; displaying itself more widely, 
but appearing to have been more fugitive. The Belgian 
Churches inspired him with the most affectionate recollec- 
tions, — the closest, I may say ; while his visit to the Vaudois 
Valleys (where he had been sent at the cost of some 
American friends) was not only the last, but was probably 
the richest of his happy experiences in his evangelistic 
work. " ISTowhere, in all my mission spheres," he said to his 
young friend the Pastor Coucourde, who repeated his words, 



THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 289 



to me; — "have I met with a more favourable field for 
my work than among those worthy inhabitants of the 
valleys." 

If the accounts he published of some of his journeys 
give a very striking idea of his method of evangelising, 
they do not at the same time furnish us with a history of 
his labours. In order to follow him step by step in his 
work, it would be necessary to take up each of his expedi- 
tions in succession, by means of letters and documents 
which still remain, while his missions on the Continent 
alone would furnish material for a volume. Instead of a 
long list of dates and names of places, my readers would 
doubtless prefer to find in these pages, after an account 
presented by my father himself to his Church, some more 
enlarged details of his mission in the south of France, in 
1836. 

At the commencement of that year, he had felt a strong 
desire to carry the Word to countries asking for it, 
or deprived of it. He set out, commended to the Lord by 
the prayers of his Church, which he left under the pastoral 
supervision of candidates in theology at the Oratory, and 
some of the pastors of the " Eglise du Bourg de Four." 
But we will proceed to the further narrative in his own 
words* 

"There had long been a felt need in France for some 
minister of God to come and preach the gospel. I was 
invited to respond to this appeal; and, after having received 
funds sufficient to set forth, and depending upon the Lord 

* The MS. book from which the following account is derived, is not in 
his own handwriting ; it consists of notes of the history of his expedition, 
which he delivered in his chapel, taken while he was speaking. 26th 
June 1836. 

T 



290 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAX. 



for the rest, I can say now, as the apostles said when 
asked by their Master on their return from their mission, 
whether they lacked anything — 'Xothing, Lord.' " 

Detailing a conversation with a Eoman Catholic in the 
public conveyance from Geneva to Dole, he says, "The 
great error under which I once laboured was, that on 
certain occasions we ou°\ht to en^a^e in controversy. 
When a wolf carries away a lamb from my flock, I ought 
by no means to use force to rescue his prey from his teeth. 
In doing so, I should injure at once wolf, lamb, and my- 
self. I must endeavour to persuaded him to relinquish 
his booty of his own accord and follow me whither I 
will. It is easier, no doubt, to speak of points of difference, 
than of the centre of union. But we act as we are able. 
As for my travelling companion from here to Dole, this 
was the course I took with him. I simply said, ' I should 
like to speak to you about your soul, but I don't know 
how to begin.' 'Well, sir, proceed,' he replied with 
promptitude, I continued, or rather we continued, to 
converse, and on parting, I had the happiness of hearing 
him thank God for sending me to speak to him of that 
salvation which comes wholly from Him, and he begged 
me to send him a Bible. As a rule," my father goes on to 
say, " I have found that if you enter upon a conversation 
of this character, with kindness and courtesy, you will 
always be listened to. Moreover, that is the only way to 
succeed. Apropos of this, I should like to tell you what 
happened to me one day when I was on the top of the 
diligence between Paris and Marseilles. Sitting beside 
me were five young merchants, whom I heard for a mo- 



DROPPINGS BY TEE WAY. 



291 



ment chatting in a lively strain about a thousand things. 
Suddenly I turned and said to them, ' You Frenchmen 
appear to me like paper-kites without string.' 'First of all, 
sir,' said one of them in reply, "you will he so good as to 
prove that we are paper-kites, and then you will tell us 
how we come to he without string.' It was not difficult 
for me to prove, with the Gospel in my hand, that man is 
but the sport of vanity, and that if he is not held in by 
the strong cord of the Spirit of God, he is inevitably car- 
ried away by the unruly wind of covetousness and passion. 
They listened to me as I asked them if it were not their 
case; and, four of them leaving us at Sevres, I had an 
earnest and prolonged conversation with the fifth. 

u I have always found that, whether with Eomanists or 
Protestants, the best way to commence such a conversation 
is to bring them, at once, face to face with the doctrine of 
election by grace." * 

Arrived at Paris, he remained there a week to be pre- 
sent at the annual meeting of the different religious 
societies. " The most striking thing I remember," he 
says, " and which penetrated my heart from the Lord, was 
that, as He has not decided the question of Church govern- 
ment in His "Word, we ought not to attach too much im- 
portance to the differences which divide us on this point. I 
thank God that I went to Paris, if it were only to learn this." 

He visited the Pastor Vivien at Versailles, and rejoiced 
greatly in the zeal and activity of his old friend; preached 
several times in Paris, and took part in the Temple Chapel 

* See " Quatre-vingt Jours," &c, r p. 147, for a similar statement on the 
same subject at the close of his mission to Belgium in 1842. 



292 



LIFE OF CMSAFL MALAN. 



in the ordination of a candidate, whose course he had 
directed at Geneva some years before. 

Not being able to decide, in the midst of the bustle 
of Paris, as to the aim to be given to his mission, he went 
to St Cloud to spend a day in the park. There he resolved 
to set out next day for the south. 

At Angouleme a young Parisian, amiable and of well- 
bred manners, took his place in the conveyance, and 
accosted him at once with the question, " Come from 
Paris, sir ? of course you've seen the Huguenots ?" " ISTo, 
I did not ; but I have their treasure here," drawing a New 
Testament from his pocket, and presenting it to him. 
"Ah," said the young man, "good enough for children 
that — mere fables." " How about your soul then ?" " My 
soul ! I haven't one ; when you die, you die altogether," 
and he proceeded to expound the system of materialism. 
" I could scarcely keep from showing him the- folly of his 
arguments by others in reply ; but I thought it better to 
let the Word speak for itself, and read him several 
passages. He got annoyed ; I saw then that they pricked 
his conscience, and I went on ; he worked himself up into 
a great rage, however, and sate silently biting his lips. 
In this condition he remained for about half an hour, and 
then exclaimed, suddenly, ' I should like to have such 
a book as that, for I begin to think that its contents are 
true, and that I have been under a delusion.' " My father 
gave him his New Testament, and met him afterwards at 
Bordeaux, where he constantly attended his ministry, and 
showed, in a thousand ways, that he had received a deep 
impression, " When I saw this fruit of the Word of God," 



A TABLE D'HOTE. 



293 



lie adds, "I rejoiced that I had not spoken of myself, 
or employed my own arguments." 

His stay at Bordeaux was laborious. He had written 
from Paris to an old friend, M. de Laharpe, in that city, 
saying that he would go south on condition that he had 
work to do, and that he should be enabled to hold, at 
least, two meetings a-day. His correspondent welcomed 
him by saying, " I received your note ; you will hold your 
first meeting in an hour." " That is what I call a true 
hospitable greeting to a minister of God," my father adds. 
It was at Bordeaux, at one of the meetings, that a young 
Eomanist, a native of Bretagne, was brought to a know- 
ledge of the gospel, — a workman in the city, and who, 
after a course of suitable study, became a faithful pastor. 
His history, for its own sake, would deserve to be re- 
corded. 

My father preached also in the churches of the Estab- 
lishment, and before very numerous gatherings. But it 
was when he left Bordeaux that his mission, properly 
speaking, began. He quitted the city in company with 
the pastor Henriquet, one of his old friends, and Mr 
Laharpe, a candidate for the ministry, the son of the friend 
who had received him on his arrival. 

After various occurrences, too long to relate, the three 
travellers arrived at Libourne. There, at the table d'hote, 
they met a man who said openly, " For my part my religion 
is gastronomy." " I must confess," said my father to his 
hearers, in reference to this remark, " that I have often had 
great difficulty in starting a religious conversation at a 
' table d'hote.' Here, however, it was started for me, so I 



294 LIFE OF CJFSAR MILAN. 



merely turned and said to the speaker, ' that a wiser than 
he or I had declared that the belly and its meats were 
made to he destroyed.' " From that time the conversation 
proceeded with animation, and my father ended with dis- 
tributing tracts to those present. At Bergerac also, at the 
"table d'hote," he interrupted a sharp discussion on the 
comparative merits of Spaniards and Frenchmen, by say- 
ing, in a loud, clear tone, " that in the eyes of the Supreme 
Judge no one nation is better than another," and " that he 
alone is really ' letter ' who has been renewed by the Spirit 
of God." Then availing himself of the sensation he had 
produced in the company, he put a tract in each of their 
plates and left the room. 

After visiting St Foy, they arrived in lands immortalised 
in the recollection of every Protestant, for the persecutions 
endured there by the confessors of a pure gospel. Here 
M. Henriquet, whose church was in the neighbourhood, 
had to part with his friends. " Some of the fishermen, 
who comprise the population of that country, — simple- 
minded and honest men, — came to convey us in one of 
their large boats. The sailing was delightful ; and, as we 
were quietly towed along by the oxen, we sang with loud 
voices the praises of the Lord. On approaching La Nouga- 
rede we found the bank crowded with groups waiting for 
us. The church was close at hand. I preached there for 
many consecutive hours to three or four hundred people, 
who listened with unwearied eagerness to the message of 
the gospel." 

As they were leaving, a physician of Bergerac, who had 
heard my father at Bordeaux, entered into a conversation 



BEING INSTANT. 



295 



in the diligence with M. Laharpe. On their arrival at 
Bergerac early in the day, the two travellers found that the 
diligence did not leave till very late in the evening. My 
father therefore proposed to M. Laharpe that he should ask 
the physician, with whom he had been conversing, whether 
they couldn't have a meeting ? One was held forthwith, 
and lasted from seven to nine. About midnight, just as 
they were starting, they found there were no vacant places. 
As there seemed no prospect of the hotel being opened, a 
gentleman in the town received the two missionaries into 
his house. At their departure, the next day, he assured 
them that he had cause to bless God for their stay. 

At Gastillonnez they took a walk in the town while the 
horse was being baited. " How many servants of God," 
said M. Laharpe, suddenly, " have passed under the arch- 
ways of these gates to go to martyrdom ! " " How I 
should love to preach the Word of God to this people," 
replied his companion. Then, observing some children 
who were leaving school, he called one of them to him, 
and, asking him if he knew how to read, gave him a tract. 
" Soon," he goes on to say, " all the school was round me ; 
so that I took one on my knees, had another at my side, 
and gave a tract to every one who could read ; and thus 
the truth of the gospel was disseminated through the entire 
place." 

At Clairac my father held a meeting every day, and 
preached twice on Sunday. On Monday, after visiting the 
pastor, he distributed tracts, addressed the workmen on the 
road separately, and, in the evening, presided again over a 
meeting. 



296 



LIFE OF CMSJM MALAK. 



Malan and his young friend preached at Montauban, 
where the latter stopped. At La Garde my father's address 
created a lively impression in the minds of some who were 
present, as well as of the pastor himself. Near there, he 
had the gratification of thanking one of the gentlemen of 
the neighbourhood, who had been mentioned to him as 
being the person who, at the commencement of the build- 
ing of his chapel, had sent him thirty louis d'or, with an 
anonymous letter containing the following sentence : " It 
is written, Extend thy curtains; but it is also written, 
Strengthen thy pavilions ! I have received this sum, and 
I send it to you." 

At Toulouse he met M. Chabrand, that delightful 
character, who, the more he is known the more he is be- 
loved ; with those servants of God, so zealous and so devoted 
in their work, the MM. Courtois. " I begged them," he 
adds, " not to be sparing in their supply of work, as I had 
not come to visit museums and curiosities, but to preach 
the Word of God." 

So he preached frequently in that town; among other 
places, at the Military Hospital. " The place where I had 
to speak," he says, " was sufficiently large, and the soldiers 
who occupied it had, the greater portion of them, risen 
from their beds, and came in leaning upon one another. 
There were some bedsteads which had been stripped in 
the room. 'Come, my friends,' I said to them, 'we must 
draw the table near the beds that you may be able to sit 
down.' Otherwise, they would certainly have fainted. I 
then preached to them, but in language suitable to soldiers, 
I said to them, among other things, ' You are probably told 



EVERYWHERE PREACHING THE WORD. 297 



that there are small and great sins, but this is not the 
case. Suppose that in time of war you had been posted as 
a sentinel in saying this, I looked steadfastly at an old 
grenadier with gray moustaches ; ' with instructions not 
to let a single cockade of the enemy pass your beat. 
While you are stationed there, a little child comes up 
to you, wearing this cockade, and says to you, "Let me 
pass, sentry." "No one passes here would be your 
answer." " But I want to go and see my mother." " No 
one passes here," you would again reply ; and the child 
would be off. Well, it is exactly the same with reference 
to these sins sometimes called little.' " 

The next Sunday, the soldiers closed their doors on their 
chaplain; "Go and preach your stuff elsewhere," they 
cried, " and send us the gentleman who spoke to us the 
other day." The incident created a stir: it was even re- 
ferred to Paris, and the final result was a free admission 
for Protestants into the hospital. 

Prom Toulouse, after visiting the Churches of Ariege, he 
arrived at Calmont. " The people of this place," he says, 
" were so desirous to hear the gospel, that every time the 
bell rang, they came in a body to church. When our 
dear and honoured brother Olivier came there, he arrived 
very late in the evening ; but as he had to set out again 
the next morning, the pastor had the bell rung immediately ; 
and though the population had gone to bed, they all got 
up, and the meeting was held. 

" At Mirepoix where we had to stop, we walked into the 
town — the pastor of Calmont and I — and as we passed 
by a cutler's shop, I said to the man, ' Ah ! I see you make 



298 



LIFE OF CJESAPo MA LAN. 



use of coals, as the fire is fiercer, but do you know of the 
fire that is never quenched.' 'How?' he asked, 'a fire 
which is never quenched ? ' and he left his forge and 
listened very seriously while I spoke to him of his soul." 

As they were returning and crossing the market-place, 
they saw in the distance a species of clerk who was 
reading aloud. My father passed on, but his companion 
cried out to him in English, " Doctor, here's a man who 
says that God's truth is better than man's." The fact was, 
that this clerk had intended to make a sort of public de- 
monstration against the Protestant preachers. " I retraced 
my steps," says my father, "and asked the reader to let 
me see the book he had in his hand. It was a Breviary. 
Then opening it after the Magnificat, I read these words, 
'And this is His commandment, that we should believe 
on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another 
as He gave us commandment.'* 'What glorious words 
you have got in this book,' I said to those around me. 
Thirty or forty persons had collected together, and for twenty 
minutes I preached to them. I took care to keep my 
friend the clerk at my side, and said to him in a low voice 
from time to time, 'See that you are not fighting against 
God.' He replied each time — ' Don't be afraid. Yes, in- 
deed sir, it 's very good.' When I had finished, I let him 
go." My father went back to Toulouse, passing La Bastide 
on his way. There a letter from the pastor of Calmont 
summoned him to Perpignan, where lie stayed ten days. 

" I had occasion to remark there," he says, " as in other 
countries of Prance, how far the minds of the people are 

* 1 John iii. 23. 



« TURNING THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN." 299 



"becoming impatient of the yoke. They are not only full 
of ardour, but also invariably ready to throw off every 
species of rule. Hence care is needed not to mistake the 
enthusiasm, which they occasionally display, for an im- 
pression produced by the Word. Above all, it must never 
be forgotten that the doctrines of grace, which, more than 
any other, tend to set men free, if they are imperfectly 
understood by these people, will serve to support them in 
the tendencies to which I have referred. 

At Perpignan, the mayor and prefect received the 
foreign preacher very well. He delivered daily addresses 
there ; frequently to six hundred or seven hundred people ; 
in the large room of a building erected for the immediate 
occupation of the Catholic bishop. "I told them," he 
remarks, " that I was neither Catholic nor Protestant, but 
a Bible Christian, and that if any of them had any scruple 
as to the copies of the sacred books I used, they might 
come forward and .say so, or, if they preferred it, pay me a 
visit any day. They asked us for Bibles, and, at the close 
of each address, came forward to thank us for having come 
among them." 

At Eivesaltes, — an almost Spanish town, famous for the 
fanaticism of its population, where he had been invited by 
some one who had heard him at Perpignan, — he spoke in 
the large room of a school which had just been established 
by a few friends of progress. " The stir produced among 
the population," he says, " was like that in the valley of 
dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii.) Ten or twelve people renounced 
Popery, and several ladies formed a committee for the 
diffusion of the Scriptures. People told me that if I 



300 



LIFE OF CJE8AR MA LAN". 



stayed a few days longer they would abjure Eomanism. I 
thought it was just the moment for me to withdraw, 
leaving the Spirit of God to work in their hearts ; for what 
good end would have been answered by arousing in the 
place nothing short of a religious revolution. I left there, 
however, full of gratitude to God, longing for a gospel 
missionary to return to them, provided only it were one of 
matured experience, and not a young man." 

At Montpellier, he met his old friend, and companion 
of his studies, the pastor Lissignol, whose letters had 
encouraged him during his work at Perpignan. He 
preached there, as at Msmes and Montelimart. "At 
Lyons," he says, "I had the gratification of meeting my 
dear and honoured brother, Adolphe Monod, who received 
me with the most cordial affection, and begged me to 
address his flock on three occasions. What strikes one in 
this man of God is the deep humility which has been 
vouchsafed to him." Then after relating how, in the 
conveyance by which he returned to Geneva, he had had a 
religious conversation with a fellow-traveller from which 
he hoped for good results, he concluded his narrative, by 
calling upon his congregation to intercede for France, 
where "the harvest was plenteous but the labourers 
few." 

By way of giving completeness to the above, I will add 
a few passages from a private journal which he wrote each 
day, during his stay at Perpignan. In the midst of various 
notes on letters from home, &c, we are enabled to dis- 
cover, in all their vividness, his most intimate thoughts 
on the subject of his mission — 



HUNGRY AND THIRSTY ONES. 301 



" 3d June. — Held my first meeting : about three hundred 
persons of all ranks present : officers of the garrison, 
advocates, &c. At the commencement I said that I had 
come in the hope of being useful to my hearers, that they 
would, therefore, have to listen with attention. The 
introduction of my discourse was to the effect that, in 
spite of all the opinions which divide and perplex the 
thinking world, there were two facts which no error nor 
attack had been able to overrun — the one, that man is 
a sinner ; the other, that Jesus has been crucified, and 
is risen again : that these two verities comprised all that 
man was in himself, and all that the grace of God had 
done for him." 

Saturday 4th. — He meets soldiers who appear in- 
terested in what he says to them, and wishful to hear him 
further. He is told that his preaching has produced a 
sensation, and he receives many visits from leading per- 
sons in the town. " I notice that every one looks at me 
with curiosity when I go out. Be it so. Let the Lord 
only spread His net : and, if the fish enter from curiosity, 
they will do what Zacchseus did." Then he adds, " I feel 
more than ever that I am nothing in myself, I seem to be 
nothing. ... I am sometimes disposed to reason with the 

people, and, following the inclination of N , to prove 

first the authenticity of the Bible, &c, but I have been 
withheld from doing so by an impulse from within. I 
will preach Jesus, and His Name will vindicate its power 
over the individual conscience. Under all circumstances 
it is better, the sword of the Spirit being our weapon, to 
deal a few blows into human souls, than to stop to 



302 



LIFE OF CJESAE MALAK 



inquire into the way in which this two-edged blade has 
been tempered." In the evening, at 9.30, there was a meet- 
ing of seven hundred persons. " I shall have to prepare 
my discourse very carefully for to-morrow, that it may be 
abundantly enriched from the Word of God. Oh Jesus, 
Jesus, my Master, have compassion on Thy servant's 
ignorance, and help him with Thy Spirit and Thy Word ! 
Amen, Lord !" 

" Monday 6th. — Further conversation with the soldiers. I 
listened for a few moments to a young girl who played the 
piano, before the lady of the house. Then, on being asked, 
I played and sung a hymn, which gave rise to a very 
singular conversation in which a gentleman took part, and 
which the servants listened to on the stairs. It was 
followed by several others with the same persons." 

8th. — After his return from "that day of peace and 
blessing " at Eivesaltes : " this morning, a resident in 
Perpignan, who met us in the town, said to me, ' Courage, 
you are doing good. People are thinking and speaking of 
what you are saying. If you do not see the results, they 
are none the less sure to come. Go forward !' 0 Lord, 
Thou who art the beginning and the strength of the life 
of Thy people, have compassion upon me !" In the even- 
ing : " This morning I was exhausted, but it did not last, 
and the joy of my heart increases in proportion with the 
work." 

(< 10th. — As I was leaving the IST.'s I met in the 
courtyard the Spanish nobleman whom I have mentioned 
before. I talked with him for more than an hour on the 
efficacy of Christ's death. At the end of our conversation 



WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT! 



303 



lie embraced me warmly. A mason had just been erecting 
a scaffolding in front of the door by which I left the 

house ; as I crossed to the other side M. N" said to 

me : ' May God bless your journey. Perhaps we shall 
meet above ; and ' — pointing upward with his hand — ' He 
will lead us to His heavenly abode.' I thought that 
which intervened between my soul and his — so devoted 
to his Eoman faith, was but the scaffolding of his obser- 
vances." 

\Wi. — Leaving Perpignan, he writes : " How I ought to 
magnify the Lord ! He has brought me here — He has 
sustained me in health and strength — He has suffered 
me to preach several times a day — He has enabled me to 
speak to many souls, and to write, besides, four tracts 
which, by His grace, will serve to recall what I have said 
to the memory of some, and will be the means of com- 
municating to others the message of salvation."* Such is 
the history of his mission to the south of France in 1836. 

It is not our intention to follow him through his other 
missionary tours ; the details we have just given will serve 
to convey a true idea of them. Indeed, he has published an 
account of some of them. In 1842, for example, he issued 
his " Quatre-vingt Jours d'un Missionaire ; or, A Simple 
Narrative of the Various Toils of one of the Labourers in 

* The day after his arrival at Perpignan he wrote the tract, " The Best 
and Surest Way," which was sent by him to his friends at Toulouse, and 
immediately printed. On the 10th he began " La Route Perdue." Finish- 
ing that, he composed, on the 12th, an address to the congregations he had 
visited ; and returning home, after having taken leave of his hearers, he 
prepared, in connection with an expression he had overheard on the way, 
the tract, " None are Born Christians." He wrote at the same time also 
" The Primitive Christians." 



304 



LIFE OF OMSAE MALAN. 



the Great Harvest ; " being notes of a preaching tour that' 
year in Belgium and Holland. In 1843 appeared "A 
Visit to Scotland;" in 1845, " A Fisher of Living Men/' 
the narrative of a second trip to Holland; in 1850, "A 
Week in the Mountains;" in 1856, "Travelling Expe- 
riences ; " and lastly, in the same year, after his return 
from the Yaudois Valleys, " In Season and out of Season." 

In all these publications, in addition to his personal 
way of presenting the gospel, and the special importance 
he attaches to setting forth the doctrine of sovereign 
grace, his pages abound with a variety of striking thoughts, 
and display a simple and fervent piety ; and also, as years 
advance, abundant proofs of the matured strength which a 
long habit of living with God and for God gives to a 
simple and devout heart. 

I shall content myself with quoting here a few of these 
passages. For example, the following may serve to illus- 
trate his sentiments, as well in reference to the results 
which he anticipated from his mission, as also in regard to 
those which he had already witnessed 

"At the commencement of my ministry I often attri- 
buted to the Holy Spirit's operation, impressions produced 
only by persuasive human language. More than once 
have I had to note of that time, that I was building with 
hay and stubble. For many years, however, I have learnt 
that not every religious emotion comes from above. I know 
that the Holy Spirit alone gives life. I try to discern His 
whisper within, and to follow Him as I repeat His teach- 
ings. I pray God to send down His Spirit on those I 
address before they receive the Word. I am careful, 
moreover, to commend to His grace such souls as tell me 



IXCIDEXTS. 



305 



of good received. But I leave everything to the Lord. I 
j^refer rather to wait for the result than to anticipate it."* 

Further on, on quitting Belgium : " Oh, gracious God, 
how easy has been the path Thou hast marked out for me 
in this beautiful country ! Thou hast brought me here to 
speak of Jesus. Thou hast strengthened me by the Spirit 
of peace and grace ; and, to crown all Thine acts of loving- 
kindness, Thou hast kept me perpetually in the comforting 
and cheering society of those who love Thee, and who have 
declared to me their love in the faith, "-f- 

Further on still, speaking of his visit to Holland, where 
he had just preached twenty-nine times in twenty-seven 
days : " It was a time of peace, of heavenly joy, of cheer- 
ing, brotherly love. Beceived by all as an old friend, 
as a beloved brother, and as the messenger of Jesus ; hearts 
and houses opened to welcome me." J 

Dismissing for the present his account of his visit to 
Scotland in 18-43, which only bears upon his intercourse 
with the Free Church in that country, I will insert here a 
few extracts from his "Fisher of Men." In this book, 
especially written, as we have seen, after a fresh mission to 
Holland in 1845, are to be found his characteristic traits 
and those felicitous expressions which he invariably had 
at his command. 

Thus, at Bale he stopped a quarrel at its commencement, 
by whispering in the ear of a peasant, "Fear God and for- 
give. God give you His peace." Afterwards the peasant 
came up to him, and began an earnest conversation with 
him. On another occasion, at the time of the Sonderbund 
campaign, he asked a Swiss of the liberal party, who used 

* " Quatre-vingt Jours," &c, p. 269. f Ibid., p. 371. J Ibid., p. 385. 

U 



306 



LIFE OF CMSAR MALAN. 



violent language in speaking of the Jesuits, " Whether a 
truncheon or stone-throwing would avail to drive away 
darkness ?" A remark also followed up, in its turn, by a 
prolonged conversation. 

In the railway from Amsterdam to Arnheim, we see him 
"sitting in his corner of the carriage, quite silent, and 
watching for a moment when he might if possible introduce 
some serious topic." He was not long in finding his oppor- 
tunity. On another occasion, to a traveller describing 
the " religious impression produced upon his mind when 
he entered certain churches," Malan replied, " Then if you 
were blind, your piety would suffer." Again, he asked a joiner 
who was enlarging upon his desire to render himself worthy 
of the grace of God, "whether any amount of polishing 
would transform a piece of common wood into mahogany?" 
I wish I could have quoted his conversation with a student, 
on true and false philosophy, and with the Jesuit on 
proselytism, a perfect model of guarded and courteous 
irony. I might have referred to various incidents, giving 
clearest evidence of his benevolent feeling towards the 
poor, the weak, the wandering, the unfortunate, and chil- 
dren. I will confine myself here, however, to relating an 
unlooked-for interview which he had with a pious stranger. 
" I feel," he said, " that the cordial affections which are in 
Christ belong in effect to a separate existence, are a divine 
power from which we have to descend before we can take 
up earthly cares : just as, after having breathed the invig- 
orating air of the high Alps, and contemplated the majestic 
summits, we have to force ourselves back to the plain, to 
trudge on once more along the dusty roads, and through 
the midst of the towns and their surrounding death." We 



FELLOWSHIPS. 



307 



recognise in this language the man who, whilst he had been 
so often called upon to meet with brethren, lived with them 
so little. These words of his, — the expression of a feeling 
deep and lively, — may furnish to a thoughtful mind the key 
to many traits which tended to separate my father from his 
brethren, and to withdraw him from ordinary life. 

What I should like, however, to quote more freely, is his 
little publication entitled, "A Week in the Mountains," 
in which he describes a story in the Bernese Oberland, in 
the summer of 1849, which contains numerous pages as 
remarkable for the grace and the freshness of their style as 
for the genuine feeling they so abundantly betray. 

In 1856, after his visit to the Vaudois Valleys, he 
published, as we have seen, his little book, called "In 
Season and out of Season;" where we find, among other 
things, the advice which his long experience dictated, to 
young ecclesiastics. He was then nearly seventy ; it was 
his last foreign mission. 

In looking over all these volumes it is impossible to 
help being struck, again and again, by that absolute assur- 
ance of the personal love of God which forms the foun- 
dation and centre of his entire spiritual life. This it was 
that stirred up and sustained his activity. Thence he 
derived his entire self-possession when he was confronted 
by the smiles of the indifferent or unbelieving. Here was 
the source of that strength which he was enabled to 
maintain, in the midst of his isolation; of that joy and 
peace which breathed through his lightest words ; as well as 
of that simple ease, with which he addressed each and 
all This is the sentiment, moreover, to which must be 
traced that piety, the object of which is the Lord Jesus, 



308 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAR. 



Whom lie calls his Saviour, his Master, his Brother, and to 
Whom his whole heart is manifestly devoted. Here, and 
here only, is the basis on which he rests his assured 
triumphant life of future glory — here too, that consciousness 
of the love of God for him, with which he feeds the springs 
of his benevolent and charitable heart. To sum up all in 
one word, this confidence is so conspicuous in his life, that 
it is impossible to follow his career without seeing that it 
realises the scriptural picture of the just man living by his 
faith. 

If such, however, be the impression produced by de- 
scriptions such as these, with reference to the spiritual life 
which animated the subject of them, there remains yet 
one, entirely distinct, connected with the expression which 
as a preacher he gave to it. At the first glance we 
cannot but be struck, on the one hand, by that elevation 
invariably produced in the soul of the believer by personal 
and actual communion with God Himself, constantly 
present in that soul's experience, and, on the other, by 
the touching simplicity and infantine freshness of his 
personal and devoted love for the Saviour, the more re- 
markable in a man distinguished for the manly vigour and 
independence of his character. As for the impression 
produced by his method of teaching, shown in these in- 
cidents, it is much more decided. 

On this point, it is impossible to refrain from the 
inquiry, as we lay down his treatises, whether, after all, the 
gospel is altogether comprised in the invariable syllogism 
they set forth; whether that strictly logical form, that 
instinctive search after clearness in thought, and intel- 
lectual truth, really exhausts the whole of the divine 



HOME AGAIN. 



309 



response to that heart-hunger and thirst which the gospel 
pre-eminently meets. We ask involuntarily whether the 
fact that this analysis of the divine scheme is so complete, 
would not of itself empower us to think that what we read 
there can only be one side of that salvation of God which, 
like all that is infinite and divine, can never be thoroughly 
apprehended except by faith of heart. Eecurring, in justi- 
fication of this remark, to what has already been said 
about my father's dogmatism, I content myself with ex- 
pressing a regret in this place, that these writings of his 
are not more generally known. 

Having taken this general survey of his missionary 
activity abroad, from the year 1830, I now invite my 
readers to retrace their steps, for the purpose of noticing 
his labours during that same period in Geneva itself. 



CHAPTEE III. 

PUBLIC LABOURS IN GENEVA FROM THE YEAR 1830. 

Till the day dawn, 
And the Day Star arise, — 
Church of the Living God, 
Pursue thy upward road ; 
Look not behind nor stray 
From the well-trodden way. 
Be not ashamed to bear 
Thy cross on earth, nor fear 
Reproach and poverty, 
For Him Who died for thee. 

Section 1. — Controversial Protestantism {up to 1836.) 

The year 1830, so decisive an epoch in the history of 
modern society, was similarly marked in Geneva, especially 
by the development of that evangelical revival of the 
French Protestant world, which took its rise in that city. 
The agitation for freedom which passed at that time over 
the whole of Europe, made itself felt in the limited sphere 
where those events unfolded themselves with which we are 
now occupied. It was afterwards that the liberal move- 
ment, which the revival had inaugurated, began to exercise 
an increased influence on the public mind, in connection 
with Protestantism. At the same time, this movement 
changed its character. To the fervour of individual faith 



ABOVE THE WORLD. 



311 



was added with augmenting force a claim for the rights of 
Churches in reference to their external existence. 

Meanwhile, if this is generally true of the part taken by 
the instruments of the revival in Geneva, it does not apply 
to my father. He continued to dedicate his thoughts with 
ever-increasing earnestness to the life and faith of the in- 
dividual believer. While labouring at the progressive 
development of Churches, he never took a direct part in 
what may be called the polemical aspect of the question. 
Moreover, we notice invariably how little he appears on 
the scene when topics of this kind, which, before 1830, 
had involved him in so much obloquy in the little world 
of the first revival, began especially after 1835, mainly 
through the powerful influence of Vinet, to obtrude them- 
selves, not only upon the attention of believers, but also 
on all intelligent minds and friends of progress. Without 
holding himself entirely aloof from so decisive an agitation 
of the public mind, he nevertheless abstained altogether 
from enrolling himself among those who appeared to attach 
to it an essential importance. More solemnly engrossed, 
as he ever- was, with the eternal interest of souls exclu- 
sively, he devoted himself supremely to labouring in that 
direction, wherever it might be, which presented openings 
bearing upon those interests. 

Thus, for example, he followed with sympathising atten- 
tion the agitation which developed itself, with daily in- 
creasing clearness, in the bosom of the National Church. 
The return to it of a new life appeared to him nothing 
short of an answer to his constant and fervent prayers. 
Moreover, it might have been said that he felt himself per- 
sonally called upon to protest whenever he saw any error 



312 



LIFE OF CASSAB MA LAN. 



publicly appearing, which seemed to him to embarrass the 
progress of that movement. 

Meanwhile, however strongly he appreciated the marked 
impression produced in the official faculty of theology by 
the teaching of his old friend Diodati, however much he 
rejoiced to note how that teaching by slow degrees served 
to give a new direction to the minds of the junior clergy, 
however manifestly he afterwards participated in the re- 
awakening of the Protestant sentiment which had mani- 
fested itself in Geneva from the year 1835, he nevertheless 
abstained from taking up the pen except when he considered 
himself called upon directly to do so by circumstances 
themselves. On this point, he never thought that the 
simple fact, that he entertained a lively conviction, gave 
him of itself a right to speak out. Here, as in everything, 
he left it with God alone to take the initiative, and waited 
for God to show him the way. When once such indications 
had been undoubtedly granted him, he considered that, had 
he kept silence, he would not only have been wanting in a 
most sacred duty, but also that he would have been negli- 
gent in that direction whither the deepest feelings of his 
heart carried him. 

In short, up to the very last he loved, with an unfeigned 
love, his country and the Church of his fathers. There was 
that in him, in this sentiment, which reminds one of the 
feeling of honour that binds a soldier to his post, and com- 
pels him to raise the alarm at the enemy's approach. He 
loved to compare himself to a sentry, whose sole duty and 
glory consists in earnest and faithful watching : to a sol- 
dier whose charge depends only on the will of the com- 
mander who has placed him where he is, and who alone 



PROFESSOR CHENE VIE RE. 



313 



lias the right to recall him. " I am but the mere depository 
of my testimony," he used to say. " It would be simpler 
and easier for me to hold my tongue ; but then how should 
I give account to my Master of the ministry He has com- 
mitted to my keeping ? " 

Throughout the years to which our attention is now to 
be drawn, his testimony bore in two special directions. 
At first, as in 1831 and in 1835, he was stirred up by the 
party demonstrations among the ranks of the senior 
clergy of the National Church, whether directed against 
the doctrines or the very existence of " Methodism." At 
the commencement of 1838, certain writings which in- 
volved him personally, induced him to descend, for some 
years, into the arena of the Eoman controversy. 

In January 1831 Professor Cheneviere issued his 
" Essay" on " The Theological System of the Trinity ;" in 
which, restricting himself to the recognition of Jesus 
Christ as a divine being, he made a vigorous attack on 
the Athanasian faith, in the name of the history of the 
Primitive Church, of reason and of Scripture * 

This publication, in which, for the first time, as it 
would seem, the majority of the " Compagnie," gave 
definite expression to their views, appeared of sufficient 
importance to the members of the Evangelical Society, to 
determine them on founding their " school of theology." 

As for my father, he could not ignore an attack which, 
while it, undoubtedly, did not concern him personally 
(like the Precis from the same pen seven years before), 
was nevertheless directed, and that conspicuously, against 
the doctrine for which he had already suffered. So, but a 

* See De Goltz, " Geneve Kelig.," p. 377. 



314 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



few days after the appearance of M. Cheneviere's publica- 
tion, he issued a reply addressed " to those families in 
Geneva, who are sincerely seeking after, or who possess 
and love, the truth as it is Jesus." He characterises the 
work which had just been issued as " a detestable produc- 
tion of the spirit of darkness ;" and, while reminding his 
readers that " controversy is not piety, and that wrangliugs 
and disputes never proved the truth which the Word of 
God contains for him who studies it in faith," he appeals, 
in their presence, " to the simple testimony of that Word." 

Shortly afterwards there appeared, as a second edition 
of the Protest, a volume of two hundred pages, entitled, 
" Jesus Christ is the Eternal God, Manifest in the Flesh ; 
A First Eeply to the Writings of Professor Cheneviere 
against the God of the Christian. By C. Malan, Minister 
of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." This work 
reached its second edition immediately. An introduction, 
on the danger of looking for a new meaning in the Word 
of God, closed with these words, " Be old-fashioned in 
your principles, in your views, and in your sentiments. 
You never can be so as much as the Word or Spirit that 
reveals it. Attend to, and read what God declares. 
Enough for you if, with a heart surrendered to the Christ 
of Whom all the Scriptures testify, you wait for the Holy 
Spirit to reveal to your eyes the glory of Him Who only 
is come from the Father." He then proceeds to draw the 
attention of his readers to the importance, — decisive, so far 
as the interests of the soul are concerned, — of a right 
acquaintance with the nature of the Lord Jesus. His 
Bible in his hand, he examines one by one the four 
declarations — that Jesus Christ is self-existent — that He 



CHRIST IS GOD. 



315 



possesses sovereign power — that adoration is due only 
to God, and that it is rendered to Jesus Christ — that 
glory belongs only to the Eternal, and that Jesus Christ 
has it. A few notes are added on passages referring to 
the divinity of the Lord J esus, and of the Holy Spirit. 

It would be useless to seek in this volume an investiga- 
tion of the divinity of the Lord Jesus, founded on a 
specific idea of what divinity involves, in respect of its ap- 
proaches to a divergence from what we are accustomed to 
specify as humanity. It contains simply a lucid, and in- 
variably animated exposition of the numerous passages of 
Scripture which have been quoted in all times, in favour of 
the cardinal doctrine stated above. While in this exposition 
is to be found merely that special theology according to 
which the whole Bible in every one of its parts, and 
even in its very form, remains not only the testimony 
of the divine operations for salvation, but also the rule of 
the impression with which our faith in these facts should 
be clothed; while, as a natural consequence, it contains no 
historical estimate of the testimony of the sacred writers ; 
while the passages quoted are all brought forward on the 
same footing ; — it is at the same time evident that the 
writer is dealing with no mere process of thought, but 
with the very centre and source of his own religious life. 
In the introductory address, still bound up with the book, 
this feeling is very evident. " See to it," says the witness 
for living faith in Jesus Christ, "in what way Christ is 
revealed to you. To this end, open, read, search, study 
that Bible which teaches nothing but the truth. Either 
Jesus Christ is the eternal God ; in which case worship 
Him as such, and repudiate with abhorrence all bias- 



316 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



phemies directed against Him; or He is only a created 
being, and you have no right to serve Him, or to partake 
of the sacrament of His Supper. For in a word, to sum up 
all discussion on the subject, and to give the result of the 
most diligent inquiry that it is possible to make, either 
the Saviour of the Church is the Creator, the eternal God, 
or He is not ; and this alternative involves two faiths, two 
religions ; as different, each from the other, as the Creator 
is from His creatures." * Whatever be the opinion enter- 
tained as to the value of this reasoning, it would be 
impossible to deny the importance of so eloquent and so 
explicit an avowal in favour of the ancient faith, thus 
presented as a confession supremely of the Saviour of the 
soul ; — a confession destined never to die out, but to be 
accepted in the world, for all time, so long as souls shall 
exist conscious of their need of salvation. 

It is difficult, at the present moment, to form an 
adequate estimate of the sensation which this publication 
produced in Geneva at the time of its first appearance. 
That city resembled then a large family. More particularly, 
nothing which transpired in the sphere of its religious life 
remained a matter of indifference to any of its inhabitants. 
" Public attention was so deeply aroused that the printing 

* A remark upon the language invariably employed by my father, with 
reference to our Lord, will not be deemed unimportant. Neither he nor his 
orthodox brethren ever made use of the apostolical expression, " the 
Christ," to this hour employed only by a very small section of the evangeli- 
cal party. In speaking of the Saviour they always called Him " Christ." 
A natural custom, inasmuch as they were confronted by an express denial 
of the divinity of the Lord Jesus. Lor the former of these designations, 
indicating the office rather than the Person, tends to raise our contempla- 
tion from His own Person to Him Who conferred that office. This is no 
longer the case when the term Christ is employed ; inasmuch as that is an 
essentially individual designation, in fact, a proper name. 



THE BIBLE OF GENEVA. 



317 



office, from which the reply was issued, was surrounded by 
a crowd of people, w T ho carried off the sheets, still damp 
from the press, and read them in the street," as an eye- 
witness assured me. 

The year 1835 brought round, for the third time, the 
celebration of the centenary of the jubilee of the Beforma- 
tion. The majority of the people regarded the ceremony 
as nothing more than a great national fete, intended to 
recall the first rise of their political liberties. As for the 
clergy of the National Church, their aim was to avail 
themselves of the opportunity to recover an influence 
threatened alike by the measures which the government 
were adopting with the view of abridging their preroga- 
tives, by the increasingly alarming advances of an aggressive 
Catholicism, as well as by the rapid spread of orthodoxy 
and religious activity, the starting of which they felt they 
had too thoroughly abandoned to the dissenters. 

Their first step was unfortunate. They chose that 
moment for publishing a new translation of the Holy 
Scriptures, prepared after much care, and many years of 
labour, by the members of the " Compagnie." This was 
that " Bible of Geneva," the language of which is un- 
doubtedly very superior to the occasionally unintelligible 
versions of Osterwald, and more especially of Martin, but 
which, even in the Church of Geneva, is about to be set 
aside for a new one. It is notorious that that publication 
brought about a decisive rupture between the Britannic 
and Foreign Biblical Society and the Biblical Society of 
the Church of Geneva at that time. 

My father could not hold himself aloof from a festival 
which associated itself with his deepest feelings as a be- 



318 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



liever and a citizen. And, even had lie desired to main- 
tain silence, the opponents of the revival "would never have 
permitted it. Filled, indeed, with a sense of triumphant 
security, inspired by the reappearance of the Protestant 
sentiments of the population, they imagined that the 
moment had come for asserting publicly, and almost 
officially, their opposition to that " Methodism," which 
they persisted in regarding as nothing more than an 
ephemeral and half-conquered innovation. At the very 
beginning of the year, accordingly, there appeared an 
announcement to the effect that a prize of one thousand 
florins would be awarded to the best essay on the under- 
mentioned subjects ; the prize to be confined to Genevese 
clergymen, and the MSS. to be sent to Professor Cheneviere. 

1. What are the causes which have led to the intro- 
duction of Methodism into Geneva ? 

2. AYhat are the evils and perils it brings to the State, 
the National Church, and the well-being of separate house- 
holds ? 

3. The best methods of attacking and driving it away. 
The essays to be handed in to the care of Professor 

Cheneviere. 

In replying to this announcement my father issued in 
February, under the title of " The Trial of Methodism 
submitted to Competent Judges,"* a pamphlet of eighty 
pages, perhaps the most striking of his numerous special 
publications. 

" The subject is difficult," he says, in his Preface, " not 

* "By Caesar Malan, Doctor of Theology, minister," declared to be de- 
posed of the Church of Geneva, and regent, " ejected of the college of that 
city," with the motto, " It is time for Thee, Lord, to work." 



WHAT "METHODISM" TEACHES. 319 



in itself, our passions have rendered it so. For it invariably 
happens in all that pertains to religious questions, that, 
when opposing principles meet, Truth, whose voice is not 
of this world, appears to speak in too low a tone, while 
passions raise their cries to help her." 

Such is the misfortune which attends discussions least 
of all meriting it, — discussions on faith. It is true, that if 
they were conducted by the people, and that, if the people 
themselves were not led by others, they would, un- 
doubtedly, be calmer, and, above all, less protracted. Of 
this Geneva has had more proofs than one. Asperity, 
occasionally malice, and even irony and satire have 
wielded the pen which justice at least, to say nothing of 
charity, ought alone to have employed ; and religion has 
wept over the advantage which it was thus pretended to 
afford her. I desire to shun these evils in the important 
investigation on which I am about to enter. The subject 
is grave; on the one hand, it involves the glory of the 
gospel, on the other, the welfare of Geneva ; two consider- 
ations dear, each of them, to my heart. 

Then in a style of great occasional rapidity, and thrilling 
with emotion, he analyses one by one the three subjects of 
the programme. 

In replying to the first, he appeals, at the outset, to the 
evidence of facts, as showing that the Methodism of 
Geneva is nothing but the doctrine of the blessed Eeforma- 
tion — the religion and faith of our forefathers — the 
religion of the Bible, summed up under these three 
principal heads: — The Most Holy Trinity, Original Sin, 
and Salvation by Grace, accompanied in the heart by the 
love of the Lord Jesus. "Only," he adds, "if in 1535 



320 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



those who loved the Bible were esteemed in Geneva ; — in 
1835 the fete of the jubilee of that glorious and mighty 
event is inaugurated by utterances directed against those 
friends of the Lord Jesus, and by the issue of a programme 
in which it it is suggested as a subject of debate, how they 
may be driven from Geneva." He then shows that this 
Genevese Methodism, a vigorous offshoot of the religion of 
our fathers, or rather of the sacred truth of the Bible which 
they professed, was called forth by the heresies of the last 
century, and appeared when the tree of the Beformation 
was threatened with death. 

In his answer to the second question, (in which he refers 
to two of his previously issued publications : " Are Momiers 
injurious or necessary to the welfare of a State ?" 1823 ; 
and " Genevese Methodism," in 1831, a reply to an attack 
by the Journal of Geneva of that time), he unfolds the 
principles of these " Methodists." They belong to the 
Universal Church ; they follow the Bible. As for their 
morals, they exhibit individually a humble, pacific, just, 
charitable, temperate, pious, religious spirit. In proof of 
all this, he appeals to facts patent to his opponents, which 
he presses home with clear and direct appeals, through 
which may be traced the indignation which an honest man 
experiences at the spectacle of prejudice and injustice. 

As to the means of banishing Methodism, after enumerat- 
ing forces which had been already tried in vain, — con- 
tempt, hatred, opposition, and the secular arm, — he finishes 
by naming the only one likely to prove effectual. " Take 
away the Bible," he exclaims, " and Methodism disappears. 
Without that, you may abandon all hope of success. 
Methodism is Christianity ; be assured of that : and Chris- 



REPLY TO CHENE VIE RE. 



321 



tianity is the Bible ; and the Bible is the Word of God ; 
and God is over all. Tear Him." 

" I have replied/' he says in conclusion, " but without 
competing for the prize. I neither judge nor condemn. 
Alas, who would judge unhappy souls ! I would rather 
humble myself before God for the grace that has rescued 
me from such ignorance and unbelief. I, too, for many 
years neglected the Holy Bible. I, too, despised and con- 
tradicted the doctrines of grace. I was then a candidate 
for the ministry. I was afterwards a minister, and I 
preached error. I, too, denounced the meetings of the 
brethren, and at that time wished they would cease, while 
I carefully kept my friends away from them. God has had 
compassion upon me. He has opened my eyes, and shown 
me my sin. He has granted me repentance. He has con- 
verted me to the Lord Jesus. The riches of His mercy are 
ever the same. He can rouse a slumbering heart, and 
give understanding to those who lack it. He has done all 
this for my soul. Oh that in His loving-kindness he may 
do it for others, and that it may soon be said in Geneva, 
' Those who once persecuted the faithful now preach the 
faith which lately they destroyed.' " 

At the same time that he issued this pamphlet, he 

announced, as " The Unanswerable Beply of John Calvin 

himself, and of his Brethren, the Bastors of the Church of 

Geneva, to Brofessor Cheneviere's book against Divine 

Election," a reprint of " The Congregation of Calvin." A 

copy of this little work, for a long time nearly forgotten, 

had been sent to him in 1820, with a few jesting words, by 

a bookseller in the town, and had proved to him for a long 

time, as he says himself, " a constant and precious study." 

x 



322 



LIFE OF CJESAR 31 ALAN. 



With reference to the programme on " the Extirpation 
of Methodism," it does not appear that the prize of one 
thousand florins was adjudged. 

Meanwhile, every preparation was "being made for the 
fete which was to take place in August. After having 
assumed the defence of the cause of evangelical revival, my 
father wished to make known to the public what the fes- 
tival ought to be. 

In one of those popular dialogues which he knew so 
well how to write, entitled, " The True Jubilee," he shows 
the impropriety of celebrating the festival of that Eefor- 
mation, founded, in common with all Protestantism and 
Christianity, on the truth that Jesus Christ is God mani- 
fest in the flesh, if the solemnity is to be regarded as merely 
a national commemoration of the dawn of a new era of 
social and political liberty. Eeminding his readers that 
the Eeformed population of the Canton de Vaud, of Scot- 
land, of Holland, and other parts, had declared that they 
would have nothing to do with those in Geneva, as far as 
the jubilee was concerned, so long as their only idea of 
celebrating it was in effect, as he says, to raise a subscrip- 
tion for curtains and painted windows for their cathedral, 
he repeats to his fellow citizens that text which " neither 
people, nor priests, nor ministers, nor philosophers, nor 
learned men will ever be able to destroy, ' If any man have 
not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.' " 

Thus, then, no less as a Genevese Protestant than as an 
orthodox believer, he found it impossible to unite with 
the promoters of the fete. . " Originally," he said, " Popery, 
by means of the Preformation, was expelled from the State ; 
now it is recovering its ground among us. Moreover, the 



THE JUBILEE. 



323 



Beformation founded the Church of Geneva on the sacred 
truths of original sin, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the 
justification of the sinner by faith in the blood of Jesus ; 
now, this very essence of the Beformation is generally denied 
both by ministers and people. Finally, the Beformation 
established in Geneva a firm and holy discipline, insuring 
respect, at least externally, to the authority of the com- 
mandments of God; now there is nothing of the kind. 
I am persuaded," he exclaims, "that the troubles which 
have visited Geneva, for the last century — her revolutions, 
her enslavement, and the return of Popery to her midst — 
have sprung out of her unfaithfulness, her unbelief, the 
rebellion of her people against the Lord Jesus Christ; 
and I have no doubt whatever, that a festival celebrated 
without repentance and humiliation will prove to the 
nation a new snare, in which she will be yet more and 
more involved." 

As for himself, he will " join in celebrating the jubilee, 
with all such in the State as love the Lord Jesus Christ in 
sincerity, by prayers to God for the poor Genevese." 
"While the people were in the highest pitch of their 
excitement," says de Goltz, "the three dissenting con- 
gregations occupied themselves in praying fervently to 
God for the conversion of their fellow citizens. In Malan's 
chapel especially, they sang 'the four hymns for the third 
jubilee of the Beformation in Geneva/ which their pastor 
had just published." 

The anticipation which closed the earnest and thought- 
ful pages from which we have just quoted, could not but be 
realised. The celebration of the Beformation Jubilee of 
1835, in Geneva, was unquestionably attended by most 



324 



LIFE OF CJE BAR MA LAN. 



lamentable consequences.* Not to speak of the religions 
life of the Protestant population, we are compelled to date 
from this period that destruction, in the very home of the 
Reformation and the great Reformer, of the wholesome 
reverence with which they had hitherto been invested. 
Calvin, in the popular judgment, was regarded no longer 
as a kind of prophet and providential legislator, — a 
representative of a roused conscience and of the heart's 
return to repentance and a holy God. He came to be 
looked upon only as one of the many "great men" of 
Geneva. Bobbed of their evangelical aspect by a clergy 
which had expelled from its dogmatic traditions every- 
thing savouring of this special character, the recollections 
of the Reformation ceased to be associated in the public 
mind, with an all but miraculous interposition, by which 
the hand of God revealed itself in the national history. 
They became the bare remembrances of a national revolu- 
tion in the political and social life of the country. Nor was 
it possible thus to blot out the record of the work of God in 
history, without effacing by degrees its presence from 
individual life. Thus it came to pass that, from that 
period especially, unbelief — and that too in the most fatal 
of all its phases, indifference — began to show itself among 
the Protestant masses of Geneva. A natural result was 
that absolute contempt of all authority, which has char- 
acterised from that time, and through so many years, the 
civil life of the population. 

But if the forebodings of good men were thus mourn- 
fully realised, their prayers were undoubtedly heard. To- 

* See de Goltz; "Geneve Eeligieuse," p. 426. 



METHODISM. 



325 



gether with this perilous indifference, appeared another 
phase of it, of a totally opposite character. 

The very year which was to witness the extinction of 
Methodism proved, on the contrary, in the revival of that 
faith and life to which the stigma of this name was 
attached, the commencement of a period in which it 
depended only on itself to stamp its impress on the pub- 
lic life of the country. From 1835, — the period of the 
issue of the " Trial of Methodism," — the attacks upon it, 
more or less official, ceased. The evangelical movement, 
recognised by the majority in its true character, was ad- 
mitted by degrees, in public opinion, to the privileged 
position of a common right, This arose from various 
causes. In the first place, the revival of old Protestant 
animosities, produced in the people by the celebration of 
the jubilee after the fashion conceived of by the national 
clergy, induced the more serious portion to betake them- 
selves afresh to the consideration of religious questions. 
Such persons soon discovered that all that the clergy had 
thus accomplished was the rekindling of the religious 
passions of a by-gone age. Nor could they fail to observe 
that all this official agitation had tended to no practical 
results beyond the secret formation of the " Protestant 
Union." Apart, however, from sundry partial efforts at 
reintroducing some of the religious customs of old Geneva 
into family life, this Union was, at bottom, nothing 
more nor less than a secret society intended, under the 
pretext of defending Protestantism, to isolate the 
Catholics from the population of which they formed a 
part. Eeflecting men, who saw in Protestantism some- 



326 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



thing more than a mere remembrance of national glories 
and a hatred of priests — men who had come to see in it the 
very liberty of the soul, and free access to the word of the 
gospel for themselves and their families — such men soon 
discovered that it was not by methods like these that 
it was possible to dissipate the perils that threatened 
them, whether from superstition or unbelief. Instructed 
by the dismay caused them through ultramontane fana- 
ticism, they went on to repudiate fanaticism of every 
kind ; and, by degrees, understood that their only possible 
weapon of defence was a clear, earnest, and, above all, 
definite faith. 

This became apparent when my father (to return to the 
subject of these memoirs) found himself called upon, as we 
shall soon see, to take in hand the defence of evangelical 
truth. Moreover, the men, to whom we have just referred, 
gave their attention ; and the people, generally forgetting 
the gibes and insults which they had so recently lavished 
on the " Momier," adopted him from that time as the 
champion of the slighted rights of the old Protestantism of 
Geneva. 

From this time also, he came to be invested with a cer- 
tain amount of consideration among the population gene- 
rally. This reversion of opinion came too late, indeed, 
to effect any change in the position he had occupied 
through so many years ; and it is to be questioned 
whether, secluded as he was from the society in which 
he lived, he even perceived the gradual change in the 
popular feeling towards him. To others, however, the 
reaction was very evident. It happened at the same time 
with a distinct revival in a considerable portion of the 



LIGHT IN THE EVENING. 



327 



population, if not of religions life, at least of sincere 
attention to the religions interests of the country. Continu- 
ing firm in their attachment to the Church, the very name 
of which recalled in itself the old associations of Pro- 
testantism, they soon learned to separate the sacred cause of 
that Church from what was, after all, nothing more than 
the cause of her clergy. This speedily became apparent 
when, on the occasion of a change which supervened in 
the political administration, it was decided to deprive 
the clergy of the exclusive direction of ecclesiastical in- 
terests. 

Scarcely had this occurred, however, than it was fol- 
lowed by a marked change in the life of the National 
Church. The prohibition of the preaching of the gospel 
being withdrawn, it soon revived on all sides, while liberty 
of worship, hitherto existing only in the habits and man- 
ners of the people, found its way into the statute book. 

From that time, too, my father was no longer summoned 
to repel attacks directed against him, more or less openly, 
by the national clergy. The few publications of this kind 
which he continued to issue became mixed up with writ- 
ings of a generally controversial nature, or, at all events, 
are impressed with the special and occasionally personal 
character of the circumstances which give rise to them * 

* We may quote here, in illustration of the above remarks, the follow- 
ing publications: In 1845, "Sectaries Discharging Pastoral Functions," 
" A Unitarian Pastor of Geneva," and " Christians, Beware of Arianism," 
directed against a production of the pastor Othamare. In 1846, " The 
Essential Lacking," on the occasion of conferences held at the time by 
"orthodox" pastors of the National Church; and, in 1847, "Protest 
of an Old French Refugee against the Sophisms of a Socinian Work," 
called forth by a book, entitled, " Doctrine of Sacrifices, in their relation to 
Christ." 



328 



LIFE OF CjFSAB MALAN. 



For the rest, not to mention a volume of sermons pub- 
lished in 1833,* he had also issued, in March 1835, his 
" Mistake of Christians, with regard to Assurance of Salva- 
tion," and a little narrative work, entitled, " Manasseh ; " 
in May appeared the first edition of his " Speaking Vig- 
nettes," got up in little stanzas for children ; in December, 
" The Baptized Family," already referred to ; and, lastly, 
a metrical version of the Psalms, on which it is necessary 
to say a few words, -f- 

It will be remembered, probably, that in 1824 he had 
issued, under the title of " A mere Essay," a first instal- 
ment of this work, containing the first fifty psalms with 
the music. The universal success of his hymns, however, 
prevented attention being directed to this new issue. The 
one hundred and fifty psalms, published in 1835, attracted 
even less notice. In short, after having aimed at rendering 
the thoughts of the Psalms in strictly evangelical language, 
he decided, in the end, on following the advice of some 
friends, who, out of respect for the literal authority of the 
Scriptures, urged him to confine himself strictly to the 
very words of the Old Testament. What inclines us to 
believe that, had he adhered to his original scheme, his 
versions would have been more popular, is the fact that 
several of those which he wrote in 1824 became generally 
known, and are sung up to the present moment. He 

* "Six Sermons delivered in the Chapel of Witness," also published sepa- 
rately under the titles, " The Love of the Spirit ; " " The Unbeliever Per- 
ishing through his own Fault alone;" " Sanctification Inseparable from 
Salvation ; " " Good Seed Sown in Good Ground ; " " The True Treasure ; " 
" The Supper of the Lord is Truth and Life." 

+ "Songs of Israel; or, The Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles of the Bible, 
versified and set to music." 



AT HOME. 



329 



reverted himself to his primary idea in the selection he 
made of some of the psalms for the latest editions of the 
Songs of Zion, as also, wherever he attempted fresh ver- 
sions of some of them, employing always New Testament 
language. 

Section 2. — Mcdan testifying to the truth in his own house, 
and to strangers who visited him. 

Before noticing the labours to which my father devoted 
himself from 1837, in the matter of the Eoman contro- 
versy, it would be desirable to pause in what might prove 
to be but a mere nominal list of publications, for the sake 
of glancing at his private ministry, if I may so describe it, 
in his own household. 

These, indeed, were the years of his vigour and maturity. 
The attacks of the Genevese clergy had ceased. The fierce 
and brutal opposition of the lower orders had begun to 
subside; the recollection of the trying disputes with the 
extreme dissenters before 1829 had worn away. He was 
in the prime of life, and a missionary career, for which he 
felt himself peculiarly adapted, opened widely before him* 
At Geneva, while he followed an independent course, and 
held aloof, in this respect, from his brethren, his life was 
energetic and fully occupied. His house was visited by 
numerous strangers,-}* his children were nearly all at home 

* In the spring of 1836 he made his first great missionary expedition to 
the south of France. 

+ There might be seen Darby, Tholuck (who stayed some time at Pr£- 
Beni), Kirk, or Cheever of New York, with men like Count Zaremba, the 
Polish missionary, or Scelatz, the Hungarian. In connection with the last 
named, I remember that one day the conversation at table was to be con- 
ducted in Latin, as the only language common to all. 



330 LIFE OF CJESAB MA LAN. 



at this time, his whole existence was bright, prosperous, 
and full of force. 

I cannot refrain from inserting here the notice from the 
pen of Dr Ostertag, to which I have already adverted. 
While it records the testimony of a well-known and 
highly-esteemed man, it is, moreover, the witness of one 
who was wholly apart from the prejudices and partialities 
of Geneva ; more than this, of one who, as we shall see, 
would have differed from my father on those very points 
to which he attached the greatest importance. Present- 
ing, as it does, various traits of the personal and family 
life of the subject of this memoir, this circumstance alone 
would warrant me in submitting it to my readers. I only 
regret that a translation, necessarily abridged, must fail in 
reproducing the glowing tone and graceful style which 
mark the original. It may be as well to add that I have 
omitted (only, however, when they occur in eulogistic ex- 
pressions) a few superlatives, for which the German is 
better adapted than the Trench. 

He commences his description by telling us that when 
he arrived at Geneva, (he was then a candidate in theology), 
" his first proceeding was to visit Malan," and that he 
found in him " a man of God who had already exercised 
a conspicuous influence over his own inner life." 

" His house was outside the town, in a pretty large gar- 
den, at the bottom of which might be seen the chapel — a 
simple but suitable building. When I came inside the 
enclosure, I was told that the evening service was then 
going on. After listening under the windows till it was 
over, I saw the venerable man come out in company with 
a stranger from Scotland. He greeted me in the most 



HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 331 



affectionate manner with that grace and dignity which 
characterised him. 

" The first impression produced in my mind by seeing 
Malan was that of a noble and imposing personage. His 
figure was a little above the average height ; his frame 
compact and vigorous ; while his attitude had about it a 
semi-military air not the less simple and natural. There 
was nothing in him studied or affected. His broad 
shoulders supported a magnificent head ; his forehead was 
expanded and lofty, suggesting the idea of power ; his eyes 
sparkled with wit and fire, while at the same time his 
affectionate expression captivated you on the spot, and 
held you in chains. His finely carved mouth betrayed an 
iron will and a thorough benevolence, while it indicated at 
the same time that special gracefulness which stamps the 
orator. His luxuriant hair, already white (he was then 
about fifty years old), flowed down to his shoulders. For 
the rest, his black dress, straight collar, and white cravat, 
at once marked the clergyman. 

" After greeting me as an old acquaintance, he conducted 
me to a room which opened into the garden, where he in- 
troduced me to his Avife and to some of his daughters. 
She, with her distinguished, yet simple air, recalled to me 
the picture of a mother of a family in a German household. 

"'And what brings you here ?' he asked, as soon as we 
were seated. When I had told him that I had come to 
pay a visit to Geneva, he interrupted me by asking, ' Where 
are you lodging V ' Come,' he added, 1 when I had 
named the hotel, ' have your things brought here, and 
make yourself comfortable under my roof.' I was afraid 
of being in the way, partly because Malan was not equally 



332 



LIFE OF GJE8AB MALAN. 



admired by all those whom I purposed visiting ; but even 
more, because, in my youth and inexperience, I dreaded 
his superior powers, and that sort of evangelical fanaticism 
with which he endeavoured invariably to bring others over 
to the exaggerated rigour of his Calvinism. Guessing my 
thoughts apparently from my silence, he said, ' Don't be 
afraid to come ; you are perfectly free with us ; go and 
settle your affairs, and be back to tea.' This decided me, and 
many a time since have I thanked God for my decision." 
When Ostertag came in the evening to stay with his 

host, he found there, amongst others, the Kev. 

Bennett, well known for his voyage round the world with 
his friend Tyermann, to visit the different stations of evan- 
gelical missions. " To me," he says, " the evening was full 
of interest and instruction. It may be generally remarked 
that Malan's hospitable roof was a rendezvous for people 
from every country, and that never a week passed without 
strangers of every kind being gathered beneath it. To 
these he devoted himself with an entire oblivion of self ; 
and as he was not only a man fitted for society, but one 
also who knew how to bring out of his treasures things 
new and old, the conversation at once became, if not 
thoroughly serious, at least invariably instructive. When 
he invited his visitors to tea, as he often did, he took his 
place in the centre of the large table, his guests being 
arranged on either side, or opposite to him, and his 
numerous family to the right or left, in such a way as 
that he might take in all at a glance. A look sufficed to 
keep his children in order, or to admonish them of any 
carelessness or omission. The style of the repast was a 
mixture of Genevese and English customs. 



THE FAMILY ALTAR. 333 

" There were no brighter seasons in his domestic life than 
the periods of family worship — these were precious hours 
of blessing and revival. It is needless to say that all who 
were in the house were present, guests and servants 
included. One of the children brought a round table * 
which was drawn forward, with the family Bible and a 
book of Malan's hymns upon it, and placed before the 
chair to be occupied by the head of the family. His eldest 
daughter took her place at the piano, whilst the rest of us 
were arranged in a circle with our Bibles in our hands. 

"He commenced with a very short prayer, which he 
offered sitting. Then he gave out a hymn, which those 
present sung, generally from memory. He next read, 
with great solemnity, a chapter of the Bible, putting such 
expression into the words as was often an exposition in 
itself. Then he spoke for about a quarter of an hour on 
what he had read, generally with special unction, and 
always taking care to apply it to the individual needs of 
those he was addressing. Last came the prayer, when all 
knelt; it was full of the praise of God, and of thanksgiving for 
the great work of salvation. He was in the habit, moreover, 
in his concluding prayer, of commending to the Lord, great 
and small, individuals and communities, the Church of 
Christ, her internal quickening, and her extension through 
the world. His native country, Switzerland and Geneva, 

* I possess that round table still. My father made it himself, for my 
mother, as an offering on her wedding-day, with several other specimens of 
his workmanship. In those days (as my mother has often told me) his position 
was very straitened, while he was not the man to offer a present of which 
he could not have defrayed the expense out of his own resources. Through- 
out his whole life my father scrupulously avoided debt. Both he and my 
mother knew how to content themselves with little. 



334: 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



the city lie so clearly loved, his little church, with its 
especial needs, the members of his household, whether as 
regarded their interests or their pleasures, with the circum- 
stances of their daily life. He made special reference 
also to his guests, following the calling of each, the state of 
his soul, his projects and personal position. All these 
requests were laid before the Father of mercies in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, with such confidence and inti- 
macy of communion, that in rising from a prayer like that 
one felt refreshed and strengthened. 

" I now understood the source of that sweet temper, 
always the same, that freshness of mind which distinguished 
this noble father of the household. I could account for that 
cordial attachment and mutual kindliness which reigned 
among his children ; I discovered the secret of that cheer- 
fulness and radiance which produced so favourable an 
impression on every guest privileged to visit there. 

" I soon discovered, too, that the spirit of prayer pervaded 
the whole family life. I could see that, whenever any of 
his children or of the members of his family happened to 
be anxious or troubled by anything whatever, this true 
head of the household either urged him affectionately to 
seek God in prayer, assuring him that he himself would do 
so for him at the same time, or else took him aside and 
prayed with him, after a few words of earnest private con- 
verse." 

What Ostertag says on this point recalls to my mind 
powerfully reminiscences of childhood, too early effaced by 
the events of after years. My father was most thoroughly 
a man of prayer. He was often supplicating for himself ; 
and, as for his intercourse with others, he was in the habit, 



WAITING ON GOD. 



335 



as far as possible, of leaving no one with whom he felt him- 
self in communion without praying with him. Never did 
he set out from home ; never did he see any of us, or even 
a friend, set out ; without assembling all the household, to 
commend to the Supreme Head those who, however they 
might be separated from one another, were still one under 
His eye. So, too, the first thing he did on his return from 
a journey, after he had embraced us all round, was to return 
thanks to God for the protection he had vouchsafed to him 
and us, and for His mercy in reuniting us. Never did he 
sit down to table, were it only to take a basin of broth, 
without first bending; his head a few moments to return 
thanks, whether he were in his room, or among his family, 
or at a table d'hote surrounded by strangers. It was in 
this necessity which lay upon him to ask God's help in 
everything, that he illustrated his view of the principle, 
" all things of God/' his dogmatic expression of which has 
pained so many people. " We must go to God at once," 
he used to say to us, " and not wait till we have exhausted 
all other means. Before deciding on, or undertaking any- 
thing, whatever it be, we should never forget to ask counsel 
of the Lord." 

After remarking that the Sunday services failed to make 
the impression upon him that he expected, either because 
the chapel was so thinly attended, or because he recognised 
in my father's words evident allusions to conversations they 
had had together, Ostertag goes on to say, " I can never- 
theless testify, with joy and gratitude, that his ministra- 
tions were always animated by a spirit of true charity, and 
that they never produced in my mind an unfavourable 
impression against that excellent man. I found in them 



336 



LIFE OF CAESAB MA LAN. 



invariably such miction, solemnity, and warmth of heart, 
that I never went empty away. 

"In his house, the Sunday was observed with all the 
rigour of Scotch Protestantism. To me this was a source 
of trouble and discomfort. Everybody knows that, on this 
point, the Lutheran Church, in its teaching and tendency, 
differs from the Reformed Church of Scotland. Beyond 
all doubt, one cannot help detecting in the Scotch fashion 
a return to those fables and weak rudiments of the world 
from which Christ has redeemed us (a return which may 
not be regarded as a matter of indifference). And yet this 
zeal seemed worthy of all praise, when we compare it with 
the habitual profanation of the Sabbath in our towns and 
villages, as much among Protestants as among Romanists. 
One fact remains, that God has blessed the seventh day, 
that He set it apart for all mankind (long before the 
Levitical law, long time even before there was a people of 
God), that men may relinquish labour for rest, disturbance 
for repose, distraction for reflection ; in a word, the world 
for Himself. But to return to Malan. 

" One Sunday I heard his voice from the garden into which 
my window looked, calling to me, and asking, ' What are 
you about just now V 'I am writing some letters,' I re- 
plied through the window. ' Come into the garden then,' 
was his reply, 1 we have important things to talk about.' 
I lost no time in complying with his request ; and we were 
no sooner seated on a bench than he said, ' Do you know 
that you are breaking God's commandment by doing work 
on the Sabbath?' ' By doing work on the Sabbath?' I 
replied in amazement. 'Do you know the fourth com- 
mandment V (the third, according to the Lutherans). 



THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



337 



' Certainly/' I answered ; ' but how have I broken it ? ' 
'Thou shalt do no manner of work on the Sabbath-day,' 
he rejoined, in solemn tones ; repeating, while he laid em- 
phasis on the words, 'no manner of work. 'To write 
letters is to do work, is it not ? Is this work connected 
with God, to Whom the day belongs ? Have you no spare 
time for this during the week ? Have you nothing to-day 
to put in order with your God, with reference to the past ? 
Nothing to say to Him ? Nothing to ask of Him for the 
days which are before you ? My friend, you keep back 
from God the honour which belongs to Him, and you wrong 
your own soul.' 

" I felt the force of his words, though I made no reply ; 
while, at the same time, many counter arguments occurred 
to me. ( Undoubtedly you will have many objections to 
make to what I say,' he continued ; c but listen to me 
notwithstanding. No true Christian has, as yet, ven- 
tured to declare that the sixth commandment, " Thou 
shalt do no murder," is obsolete, and has ceased to be 
a rule for Christian practice. On the contrary, in the 
economy of the new covenant, this commandment is so 
enforced as to be made to extend even to uncharitable 
words, even to thoughts of ill-will. It is the same with 
the seventh and eighth, with all the commandments of 
the two tables. Should, then, the fourth be held to be 
abolished ? Ought we not rather to allow of this com- 
mandment what is true of the others, that it, too, is even 
more strenuously enforced under the new dispensation. 
My friend, turn over this sentence in your mind, honestly, 
seriously, ' Thou shalt do no manner of work.' 

" I was about to reply, when he interrupted me with, 

Y 



338 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



1 Hear me out. There is my house ! There we keep the 
fourth commandment in an earnest way. My youngest 
children realise the obligation of desisting from the six 
days' work, and of living on the Sabbath-day only for 
God and their Saviour. Now notice the result of that 
obedience among us. God has blessed the seventh day, 
and that blessing is renewed to the present moment in all 
its power. God has blessed my house. You may trace 
that blessing in our domestic happiness, in the peace 
which reigns among us. You may see it in my children. 
Yes, my friend, we must be in earnest in dealing with 
the commandments of God. Then He, for His part, will 
be found true to the fulfilment of His promises.' " 

After replying that, notwithstanding the serious and 
convincing arguments he had listened to, he still was 
unable to admit that the Christian Sunday was the Jewish 
Sabbath, Ostertag tells us that he assured my father that 
he preferred his rigour to the opposite tendency, and that, 
at all events, he would cheerfully bind himself, so long as 
he remained under his roof, to order his own conduct by 
the rules of the house. 

" Malan," he adds, " was not satisfied. He interrupted 
me constantly, and endeavoured with much persuasive- 
ness, and often with marvellous skill of sophistry, to over- 
turn my arguments* Obliged, however, to be satisfied 

* I imagine that this word sophistry does not bear in the German the 
unfavourable sense that is attached to it in our language. I believe it 
applies there to a man who reasons falsely, and does not necessarily convey, 
as it does with us, the idea of a dishonest man — that is, of one who seeks 
to take advantage of, and to trip up his opponent. I would add, moreover, 
with reference to my father's Sabbatarian views, that allowance must be 
made for the impression produced on a young stranger by the way in which 
they were presented. As a matter of fact, the Sunday in the Pre-Beni was 



THE CRUCIFIX. 



339 



with the promise I had made to him, he concluded by 
saying that he trusted that ' during that time I should he 
converted.' That hope was not realised, certainly, in the 
sense in which he expressed it ; and yet, in that matter also, 
I carried away with me from his house a great and lasting 
blessing. Since then I have sought, with God's help, not 
only to cherish more earnest views as to the thorough 
sanctification of the Lord's day, but also, in course of time, 
to seek, as far as I could, to introduce the blessing into 
my own house." 

Ostertag saw, at this time, an example of what he 
calls, in my father, " an Old Testament tendency," in 
the manner in which he, in common with all Eeformed 
Churches, interpreted the commandment against images, 
on the authority of which he repudiated every species of 
representation of the Deity, as well as the crucifix, as an 
object of worship.* 

Meanwhile Ostertag went to Lausanne, on the occasion 

very far from being a Jewish Sabbath. For my own part, while I entirely 
agree with Dr Ostertag on this point, I can only recall with regret, on many 
grounds, that these Sabbaths of my youth are passed. 

* It was not altogether as an image that my father objected to the 
crucifix, which, as every one knows, is adopted by the Lutherans. He 
himself placed in the hands of his younger children illustrated Bibles, from 
which he only banished representations of the eternal Father and of the 
devil. He rejected the crucifix chiefly as being a false resemblance. See 
his tract, " Why am I a Protestant ?" p. 20. 

In a letter to one of his children, in 1850, I find the following : — "For 
my part I do not like to see representations of the Lord Jesus. He 
appeared to John, and the apostle ' fell at His feet. ' He is never repre- 
sented as He is, not even as He was ; for He is God, and God cannot be 
represented. Let His marvellous meekness and kindness be ever more and 
more demonstrated to our souls ; but let it be through the Holy Spirit, 
in the heart, and not by our own imagination, and the work of man's 
hand." This shows us that my father never supposed, for a moment, that 
the Holy Spirit could ever avail Himself of the faculty of imagination. 



340 



LIFE OF CJESAFt MA LAN. 



of the religious anniversaries, and my father joined him 
there, later on. 

" On the 4th of August a large company of us returned 
to Geneva, in the steamboat which, thanks to the glorious 
weather, was full of strangers of every kind." While 
Ostertag, in conversation with his friends, enjoyed the 
liberty which succeeds all mental strain, he perceived, he 
tells us, " that Malan had just seated himself by the side 
of a foreign lady, and had, in the most courteous manner, 
exchanged a few words with her. The conversation be- 
came increasingly animated. In her features there appeared, 
by turns, the expression of surprise or the smile of con- 
tempt. Her face reddened and paled alternately. Evi- 
dently she was a prey . to the conflict of most opposite 
sentiments. Frequently might she have been seen speak- 
ing and gesticulating in great excitement ; it might have 
been conjectured that she was seeking to defend herself 
against unjust attacks. Then she set herself to listen 
attentively, silently, with her eyes bent down. By degrees 
these intervals of silence became more frequent. At 
length she gave up speaking entirely. Malan, on the 
other hand, appeared to grow increasingly serious and 
earnest, and more and more confident of success. Tears 
were soon seen coursing one another down her cheeks, 
while she applied her handkerchief to her eyes. 

"For a long time," writes Ostertasf, "I watched this 
scene from a distance, with the liveliest interest ; for it was 
plain that Malan was seeking to bring that soul to Christ. 
Had I not already heard him spoken of as one, not only filled 
with the most ardent zeal to gain hearts over to the king- 
dom of God, but as one possessing, moreover, an extra- 



FERVENT IN SPIRIT. 



341 



ordinary aptitude for winning souls ? Many and many a 
glorious instance could I recall, going far back, of what God 
had thus wrought by his means. I had heard how, during 
his walks, in the diligence, at hotels, and among people of 
every class, he had been enabled at times to fix in the 
heart, by a single word, an arrow incapable of being extri- 
cated. And now, for the first time, I saw him at this 
work. Whilst the rest of us were scattered about doing 

o 

nothing — looking about us, and chatting on subjects 
more or less trifling— he was preaching the gospel with 
indefatigable zeal and ardent love. 

" About half an hour afterwards, as I was standing by a 
young German of my acquaintance, Malan passed close to 
me, and whispered in my ear, ' Another soul gained over 
to the Lord.' A quarter of an hour afterwards, while I 
was still in the same place, and just as a young theologian 
from the north of Germany joined us, he passed me again, 
touched me on the shoulder, and said, in a low voice, 
'Preach the gospel — sound the trumpet.' Through the 
whole of my journey after that — indeed, through all my 
after life — that sentence has resounded in my ears, and 
never did I faithfully obey it and repent of doing so." 

He then mentions how he received a proposal that was 
made to him to become a tutor in a distinguished English 
family. " According to my custom," he says, " I reserved 
my decision till I had consulted my family, and got at the 
opinion of experienced men. Moreover, as soon as I had 
written home, I went to find Malan. 

"After quietly listening to my tidings, he asked me 
what decision I had come to myself? 'To accept the 
invitation,' I replied, ' if my family approve.' He shook 



342 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



his head, and began to set forth with vehemence and in- 
creasing warmth the inconveniences of such a position; 
pressing me, at the same time, with an appeal to my con- 
science, to remember that I was called to preach the "Word 
of God — to proclaim the gospel, and not to become the 
guardian of a young man of family. ' Go to Trance/* 
he exclaimed, ' to America, to Africa, anywhere you 
please, provided you preach Jesus. Win souls to the 
Lord, that is your work. Go, and sound the gospel 
trumpet ! ' A little disconcerted at this dispersion of 
my pleasant dreams, I endeavoured to show him the 
advantages of the offer I had received. ' Delusion ! de- 
lusion ! ' he replied ; mercilessly upsetting all my objec- 
tions." 

He next goes on to tell us how in the afternoon of that 
day he felt himself demolished again, as some of the little 
ones spoke to him on the same subject; and that too, 
quite naturally, to the same effect as their father had done; 
only with the decisiveness and exaggeration of their age. 

A few days afterwards, on his return from an excursion 
in the neighbourhood of Geneva, he decided on taking a 
professorial chair in the mission house at Bale. He tells 
us how my father, to whom he hastened immediately to 
communicate his intelligence, tried his utmost to dissuade 
him, while he attacked the Missionary Institute to a 
degree all but amounting to bitterness, on account of the 
errors which he thought he had discovered in their re- 
ligious government.-f- " I confess that this attack pained 

* He had just returned himself from his first missionary journey there. 
+ Ostertag mentions the charges of Arminianism and Socinianism. As 
for the first, I remember myself hearing my revered father urge it against 



OSTERTAG MISTAKEN. 



343 



me, for I thought it unjust. I soon recollected, however, 
that nothing found favour in his eyes, — admirable as he 
was in every other respect, — that appeared to be in the 
slightest degree opposed to his favourite doctrine of pre- 
destination. So I left the matter there ; expressing a firm 
belief that God would guide me in days to come, as He had 
done up to that moment." 

He then goes on to relate in detail the conversation in 
which my father sought to win him over to this special 
doctrine. As we have already had occasion to notice 
Malan's dogmatism, I shall content myself with a few 
quotations, and one or two observations of my own. 

To commence with the latter. Ostertag frequently asserts 
that this doctrine was held by every member of the family; 
and that, " with iron obstinacy." His examples, however, 
would but serve to prove a most natural circumstance, 
namely, that we succumbed as children to the only dog- 
matic influence to which we were exposed, I may venture 
to say, in my father's public teaching. I mention his 
public teaching intentionally, for he had too much tact to 
make his theological dogma the special subject of his 
private conversations with his children. I think I may 
safely say that the decided influence he exercised over us 
was not due to any special opinion which he taught, but 
rather to his living faith and true piety. 

We may now observe how Ostertag sums up his own 
impressions on this head. "It cannot be denied that on 

Bale ; especially just at that time. I imagine, however, that the second is due 
to a misconception. According to my father, Arminianism was the error of 
a multitude of true and dear Christians, while a Socinian he holds to 
have no right whatever to the title of Christian. 



344 



LIFE OF CMBAB MALAN. 



the one hand the grandeur and the imposing logic of this 
doctrine is calculated to make a deep impression on any 
one, while, on the other hand, Scripture, in a certain sense, 
supports it." 

He tells us next how my father commenced a discussion 
of the subject with him by the abrupt question, "Are you 
one of the elect ? " — how he pressed him not to rest his 
assurance of salvation on that sandy foundation, for ever 
shifting and changing, which he denominated our own 
feelings and sentiments, or, generally speaking, on anything 
in ourselves. "No," he added, "we must found that 
assurance on a firm indestructible rock, without us ; in a 
word, on the declaration of God. Faith is to believe 
what God declares." 

"I shall never cease to be grateful to dear Malan for 
this conversation," he continues, recalling further, how my 
father was for ever urging him on this subject of particular 
election, and the death of Christ for the elect only. On 
that point Ostertag would have had plenty to say, but 
" whenever Malan grew animated in a discussion, he gave 
his companion no chance of speaking. ISTo sooner did he 
hear the commencement of an objection than he would cut 
it short at times with some such an exclamation as I 
heard from him at the time. ' Oh those German heads ! ' 
or else by saying, 'I understand what you are going to 
say.' On the occasion referred to, after unfolding his views 
with much fervour and eloquence, he finished with the tri- 
umphant exclamation, ' You see the dialectics of Geneva ! ' " 

A few days afterwards, a fresh discussion was started by 
my father on final perseverance. Ostertag maintained that 
the believer might fall from grace, quoting, in support of 



URGING VEHEMENTLY. 



345 



his argument, the well-known texts of Scripture. My 
father, after explaining the passages from his point of view, 
added ; — suddenly exchanging scriptural exegesis for dia- 
lectics : — " Answer this question, ' Is it we who preserve 
our salvation, or is it our salvation that preserves us ? ' I 
simply replied that we were certainly unable to take care 
of it, but that we might nevertheless lose it through our 
own fault. Malan rose with the air of one about to deal a 
decisive blow. ' Come into my room,' he said. There, 
opening a large Bible, he showed me numerous passages, 
on the authority of which he sought with amazing force to 
prove his view, and ended by asking, ' Are you convinced 
now? Are you willing to give God the glory?'* 'I 
should not be telling the truth,' I replied, ' if I said I was 
convinced.' " " Let us pray," said my father ; and, rising 
from his chair, he knelt down and asked God, in fervent 
prayer, not that He would vouchsafe general enlightenment 
to him who knelt beside him, but that he would convince 
him on this one point. " I do not think," says Ostertag, 
" that any prayer ever gave me so much pain. Exhausted 
with fatigue, with tears in my eyes, tears which he inter- 
preted very differently from the truth, I left his study and 
sought to be alone." 

* Here we see the essence of my father's thought, and the only interpre- 
tation of a persistency which otherwise would have been painful to recall. 
Moreover, had not the scene which Ostertag describes been recorded at the 
moment, and on this ground had a claim to insertion here, and had I not 
known that I was writing for readers capable of appreciating the sacred 
rights of religious opinion, so fully recognised by my father when he estab- 
lished this special dogma on such high ground, I should not have referred 
to the occurrence. Such readers will be well pleased, on other accounts, to 
have had an opportunity of studying a scene, so full of interest from the 
way in which it illustrates the characters of the two excellent men who 
figure in it. 



346 LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



As we read this, we recall what another very distin- 
guished man wrote, after a conversation with my father in 
1841 (the Eev. F. W. Kobertson) : " I love old Malan from 
the bottom of my soul, but I hate arguing with him, even 
though the discussion remained that of Christian brethren.' 5 * 

Shortly afterwards, Ostertag, who had retired for the 
purpose of looking into a German work on Calvinistic 
theology, which my excellent mother had handed him, at 
my father's suggestion doubtless, heard his voice calling to 
him. " He invited me into his study, against the wall of 
which there was a chamber-organ. Placing a music-book 
on the desk, containing a beautiful hymn tune, with the 
text in French, he asked me to play it. I complied at 
once, while, with a superb tenor voice, in clear, full tones, 
he sang the three verses of the hymn. Both words and 
music were quite new to me. It was a hymn on the com- 
munion of saints, the sweetness of brotherly love, and the 
blessed hope that a day will come when all the children of 
God will come into the unity of a perfect knowledge in 
Christ, and will unite in praising the Lamb. I was de- 
lighted, and asked him as I finished if he would let me 
copy the words and music. ' That copy is for you/ he 
replied, with a pleased expression in his bright face, the 
result of a heartfelt kindness which has produced the de- 
sired gratification. ' It is my good-bye to you,' he added, 
and I saw then that the sheet had a sort of dedication to 
me. rSTot a very important incident this, yet it gives us a 
near view of the admirable life of love which characterised 
that excellent man." 

* " F. W. Robertson's Life and Letters." London : Smith, Elder, and Co. 
P. 65. 



SABBATH SUNSET. 



347 



After having narrated to us, in the style already quoted, 
the communion on the last Sunday he spent under our 
roof, Ostertag finishes his description of that day by re- 
marking that " the salutary sacredness which marked it 
throughout was present even at the evening meal, when 
the English minister was present, who had assisted at the 
celebration. During tea a box was handed round, with 
passages of Scripture.* Each read the text he had drawn, 
and the head of the family took occasion to say a few 
words of exhortation or application, as the case might be. 
Before we separated the English minister offered a prayer 
of singular power and unction. 

" It was with tears in my eyes that I took leave of that 
excellent family, having to start the next morning at five 
o'clock. 

" As for Malan himself, he took me by the arm and led 
me into the garden ; there he displayed the fulness of his 
affectionate spirit. In a few clear words he brought in 
review the days we had spent together, and added excel- 
lent advice with reference to my contemplated journey to 
France, with kindliest messages for an entire list of friends 

* The contents of the Sunday box were applied to different charitable pur- 
poses. For a long time they were given to my mother's school. For some 
years the collection was devoted to the redemption of young girls enslaved 
at Cairo, a work to which one of our English friends at that time— an 
English lady — was devoting herself. One of these slaves, after having been 
instructed in the Christian faith, received at her baptism our family name. 
Afterwards, my father sent the proceeds to the evangelising work in Bel- 
gium. As for the texts of Scripture, one of us usually wrote them on the 
Sunday afternoon. At the present time, some pious families having adopted 
this custom for the Sunday evenings, such texts may be had, printed for 
the purpose. My father instituted it with the view of fixing the conversa- 
tion, at a table so numerously surrounded as ours, on subjects in harmony 
with the religious character which he wished to keep up to the very close 
of the day of rest. 



348 LIFE OF CAESAR MALAX. 



and acquaintances. It was then nearly midnight, and I 
wished to say good-bye. ' No, no/ he replied, ' to-mor- 
row I shall see you to the coach-office.' 

" The next morning he was at my door at four o'clock. 
c Is your luggage ready ?' was his first question, after giv- 
ing me a hearty good morning. He assisted a servant to 
carry it down, and accompanied it himself to the garden 
gate. Not till he had done this did he come to escort me. 
The town was still wrapped in silence, not a sound was to 
be heard in the streets through which we passed. On the 
edge of the horizon, a streak of sky, faintly lit up. heralded 
the approaching dawn. ' 'What will it be,' said Malan, 
' when the day of Christ appears, and He shall suddenly 
return to awaken every sleeper in the twinkling of an eye ?' 

" Conversing thus, we reached the place from which my 
journey was to commence. Coach and horses were ready. 
Malan embraced me, invoking upon me the blessing of 
God. The next moment the diligence was bowling on its 
way. 

" I have never seen him since. He has gone to his rest, 
but his memory remains — a blessing that can never be 
effaced — with me and many others." 

May he who wrote these touching lines receive a blessing 
himself, for the reminiscences they have called up in MaJan's 
family ! As I transcribe them, I seem myself to behold 
and to listen anew to him whose pure and exalted image 
they so vividly recall !* 

* Further recollections of visits to my father from men of note may be 
met with in " Notices of the State of Eeligion in Geneva and Belgium," by 
Dr Heugh of Glasgow, 1S44 ; and in the work of Dr Cheever of New York, 
'• Wanderings of a Pilgrim under the Shadow of Mont Blanc," published 
in IS 45. Full of interest as these two volumes are — the former especially 



VIEWS OF CONTROVERSY. 349 



Section 3. — Roman Controversy from 1837, and literary 
activity to the close of his life. 

It was in the year 1837 that my father appeared pub- 
licly on the stage as the avowed opponent of the preten- 
sions of Komanism* Up to that time he had always 
purposely avoided a controversy which, in his judgment, 
could only lead to the stirring up of passions. Convinced, 
as he loved to assert, " that darkness never retreats before 
the blows of the cudgel," he was satisfied with testifying 
— whatever the error with which he had to contend — both 
in the presence of Catholicism and of Protestant unbelief, 
to that divine and living Christianity which remained with 
him a celestial and eternal fact, and which consequently 
was anterior, and essentially superior, to what deserved 
only the name of Catholicism or Protestantism. Thus we 
found him, in 1820, declining to exact from sundry Catho- 
lics a formal abjuration of their errors as soon as he dis- 
covered them to be true Christians. These principles he 
urged in 1823 in his "Protestant truly Catholic," while he 
did not scruple to avow them openly before his Catholic 
hearers in Perpignan in 1826. 

I discover them, moreover, in the letters in which he 
exhorts priests who applied to him, with the view of em- 
bracing Protestantism, " to become not the mere proselytes 

being rich in detailed information with regard to the religious world of that 
time — they do but add to what has just been quoted, the testimony of the 
personal feelings of their authors, who were both of them among the num- 
ber of my father's friends. 

* He refused, in common with English evangelicals, the title of " Catho- 
lic" to the Koman Church. " Nothing is less catholic or universal than the 
Latin Sect— the schism which Eome has made with the orthodox Church 
throughout the world." — The Future of Romanism in Geneva, p. 4. 



350 



LIFE OF CMSAR MALAN. 



of a man or a party, but the disciples of the Saviour Him- 
self." 

Nor did he meditate entering the arena of direct con- 
troversy till he found himself personally challenged. And 
even then his controversy consisted supremely in the ap- 
plication to such special points at issue as presented them- 
selves in those grand principles of his faith in the sove- 
reignty of God. 

At first the representatives of Catholicism had taken, 
with reference to the revival, a position tending directly to 
compromise its partisans in the eyes of the old official 
Protestantism of Geneva. Publications such as the " True 
History of the Momiers," or articles of the same kind in 
the ultramontane journals of the period ; — while they held 
up the evangelicals as the sole representatives of the tra- 
ditional orthodoxy of Christianity, and the victims at the 
same time of most unrighteous measures on the part of the 
national Protestant clergy ; — could not but result in making 
the old Genevese hate a party which they thus beheld 
defended by the most inexorable foes of their liberties. 

On the other hand, those whose defence was thus 
espoused by the Catholics were the first to discover the 
gulf which separated evangelical liberty from that prin- 
ciple of authority which their new allies upheld. They 
had no sympathy with men whose zeal, in their judgment, 
was the mere issue of calculation and a party manoeuvre. 
These sentiments were all the more avowed and natural as 
just as that period, (immediately before 1835), Catho- 
licism had assumed in Geneva, under the energetic direc- 
tion of the Cure Vuarin, a position as hostile as possible 
to everything held dear, as much by the friends of liberty in 



EVANGELICAL PRIESTS. 351 



Geneva as by those of the pure gospel. As for my father 
— to confine our attention to him — he did not scruple, 
out of that very frankness with which he professed his 
faith, to encounter the priests with an opposition which, as 
may be remembered, all but endangered his personal liberty. 

Of course, side by side with the fanatic ultramon- 
tanes, there was, especially at that time, a large num- 
ber of liberal Catholics, and even of priests, who, up 
to a certain point, showed themselves friendly to evan- 
gelical doctrine. It is notorious with what intensity 
this movement of faith and liberty displayed itself de- 
finitely in the Catholic Church of South Germany. My 
father soon found himself in communication with kindred 
spirits even beyond the German frontiers. He refers 
often, in his missionary narratives, to his interviews with 
priests, in whom the spirit of evangelical Christianity 
revealed itself, through, and in spite of, the ecclesiastical 
traditions of the Latins.* 

* Many of these facts will be found related in the extracts I have already 
given from his missionary journal of 1836, at Perpignan, as well as in the 
missionary narratives he printed. He relates some also in his, " Shall I 
be Able to Enter ? " in his Vendelin, p. 114 ; in his publication, entitled, 
" Is the Eeligion of my Fathers the Religion of the Fathers?" I append 
the following extract from a letter addressed to him in 1837 by a French 
priest, as giving a very fair idea of the position assumed by the priests above 
referred to, towards the evangelical revival : " I have read with great 
interest your ' Evangelical Sowings,' and your sermons preached in the 
Chapel of Witness. I rejoice to hear you speak of our Lord Jesus Christ 
so differently from many Protestants, whose works have come within my 
reach. They are thorough Socinians. To them the Saviour is no more 
than a man, though they do not openly avow this. Moreover, the impiety 
which, since the time of Louis XV., has waged so bitter a war against 
Christianity, has never had to encounter their opposition. May you reach 
the goal to which Providence is conducting the Methodists, though they 
may not perceive it ! May you complete your work of restoration, and 
bring into the bosom of the Catholic Church the Christians who are follow- 
ing you ! " 



352 LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



He no sooner found himself, however, face to face 
with men of this stamp, than they had either to throw 
up whatever he demonstrated to be a contradiction 
of the faith which they professed with him, or else to 
submit to his open charge of inconsistency. More than 
once he had the satisfaction of seeing some one of them 
adopt the former course; but, when this was not so, he 
was prepared to put himself in their place, and estimate 
the full force of the considerations which held them back.* 
At all events, he never advocated what is generally termed 
a change of religion. With him the important point was 
to impress upon all he met, whoever they might be, what 
he had experienced in his own soul as the glorious salva- 
tion of the sovereign grace of God. 

He was convinced that when once that light penetrated 
within, it dispelled the clouds of a Credulous and slavish 
superstition, as well as the deadly chill of a reasoning and 
negative unbelief. 

" I am far from condemning either books or conversa- 
tions appertaining to what is properly called controversy." 
Thus he writes himself, in 1850, to a friend who was at the 
head of a missionary work among the Catholics. " But I 
consider them as being very secondary, and as being 
designed not for conversion, but for instruction. I believe 
that, as regard souls who are still ignorant of the truth of 
salvation, whether Eomanists or so-called Protestants, we 
shall be more useful to them, the more simply we show 
them the fulness of the sacrifice of the Son of God. Con- 

* An unbelieving young Romanist once said to him, " Must I change my 
religion, then ? " " Sir," he replied, " it is necessary, first of all, that you 
should have one to change." — Quatre-vingt Jours, &c, p. 312. 



DIVINE BIGHTS OF PROTESTANTISM. 353 



troversy may come after that, just as you would prepare 
a tree after felling it ; but, in order to have it laid low, we 
must first seize the axe of grace. Its edge is powerful." 
It may be said of him that he did not so much ask his 
partners in discussion whence they came, as whither they 
were going. 

Meanwhile, if my father supposed that he could thus 
demonstrate the weakness of Eoman Catholicism by resting 
on a simple faith in salvation by grace, there were Catholic 
priests who saw, in the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, 
of which he was rightly styled the champion in Geneva, a 
truth which ought, unquestionably, to have won him over 
to the Eoman Church. Towards the close of 1837 an 
Abbe de Baudry, formerly a professor of theology in the 
seminaries of Lyons and Paris, published a work, in which 
he declared that the essential principles of Protestantism 
were subversive of all real authority * Thence he appealed 
for confirmation of his doctrine to the history of the intro- 
duction of the Eeformation into Geneva itself. A few 
days after the appearance of this pamphlet, my father 
published a brief reply, entitled, " The Divine Eights of 
Protestantism." 

After distinguishing between evangelical Protestantism, 
and the Arianism or Socinianism, which had usurped its 
name in Geneva, he passes rapidly in review the history 
of that protest which is, from the nature of the case, the 
essential character of the position of the Church of God 
outside, and opposed to the world ; shows what antiquity 

* " A Defence of the Sacred Rights of the Episcopate, and of the Holy 
See," &c. This brochure was not specially levelled against Protestantism, 
which it only referred to casually. It had been called forth by a discussion 
among the priests themselves, and concerned the Church of Rome alone. 

Z 



354 



LIFE OF CJBSAR MALAN. 



is, the promise of God, — what is "apostolicity," the doctrine 
of a free salvation. Such is that eternal Protestantism, 
which is the religion of the Bible, and the faith of the 
children of God. 

Public opinion, among the Protestants of Geneva, re- 
ceived with acclaim so firm and courteous a vindication of 
the right divine of its traditional beliefs. As for M. de 
Baudry, he had recourse to party personalities. In a few 
pages, in which he adopted an unctuous tone of excessive 
mildness, he took care to insinuate that my father's 
oiyposition to his views was, at bottom, merely an expres- 
sion of his ill-will against his old enemies, the clergy of 
Geneva. Such a course, however, as my father took care to 
show in his reply, could only bring him nearer to that 
Church " which Eome has had reason to fear, and which 
she may fear yet more hereafter." * " KTo, sir," he writes, I 
do not think that the holy Church of God consists only of 
those whom you style Methodists, since I believe that 
every soul that worships the Lord Jesus, in sincerity, is a 
member of that Church which the Saviour has purchased. 
I consider the Church of God in Geneva as composed of 
all those who, whether dissenters, semi-dissenters, or 
state-church men, believe in the eternal Godhead of the 
Son, and in free salvation." Then, having replied, by an 
appeal to facts themselves, to the insinuations and accusa- 
tions of his adversary, "Greater things," he says, in 
conclusion, "require our meditations and our watching. 
The invisible world is too near for us to employ our time 
in quarrels and disputes. Our contemporaries, moreover, 

* " Eeclamations Ne'cessaires, presented to the Abbe de Baudry, in 
reply to his former observations." 



CONTROVERSY WITH DE BAUDRY. 



355 



are far from requiring us to form parties among them. 
The world, alas, is too divided already ; so I withdraw from 
the discussion altogether." 

But in this he was mistaken. The abbe, seizing upon 
my father's declaration with reference to the divinity of 
Jesus Christ, published a few days afterwards a small 
pamphlet, entitled " Dr Malan, Protestant minister of 
G-eneva, led by the force of his own opinion to embrace 
the Catholic religion." 

Of course my father was bound to explain, and he was 
not backward in doing so. Setting to work with that 
ardour and assiduity of which he had : already given such 
ample proofs, he issued, in less than a month after the 
publication of the last pamphlet, a volume of two hundred 
and fifty pages, entitled, " Can I Enter the Eomish Church 
so long as I Believe the Whole of the Bible ? " a question 
submitted to the conscience of every Christian reader, with 
a motto taken from the 11 9th Psalm, "Thou art my portion, 
0 Lord, I have said that I would keep Thy words."* This 
work, which has been often reprinted, deserves a passing 
notice here.")* "What strikes us, at first glance, is the basis 
of its arguments, which is purely and simply the Bible itself, 
as presented to the conscience of every Christian reader. 
So that it is not so much a volume of Protestant, as a 
treatise of Christian, controversy. The faith of the Chris- 
tian, in its expression most simple and most general, 

* He advertised it in the papers immediately after de Baudry's announce- 
ment of his book, with these words : — " In the press, and to be published a 
fortnight hence." 

+ M. de Baudry merely replied in a tract of a few pages, called "Final 
Observations," in which, "in presence of the evidently prejudiced mind of 
his opponent, he declares his wish to be silent from that time." 



356 LIFE OF CMSAE MALAK 



forms the ground-work of the entire argument. As for 
Protestantism, in the special sense of the word, there is no 
reference to it ; except in so far as the individual conscience 
of the believer in the grace of the gospel, finds in it the 
expression of his faith. This faith itself is defined there 
as that of a man who, because he believes in Jesus Christ, 
and worships Him, knows that he is justified by faith, has 
peace with God, possesses now life everlasting, and is sealed 
by the Spirit till the day of redemption.* It is that faith 
which rests alone on the declarations of the gospel, and 
which, speaking for himself, he says, " has been for more 
than twenty years his precious unfailing portion." And 
now he finds himself driven to the inquiry, whether really, 
as the question is submitted to him, that faith has been a 
delusion ; whether he has misunderstood the Bible after 
all; whether the Eoman creed is actually more in har- 
mony with the infallible utterances of Holy Writ. 

With this end he examines the Eomish faith under 
three general heads, — revelation, government, and pos- 
session of salvation; in other words, he examines it in 
respect of what it affirms of Holy Scripture, of the 
Church on earth, and of the peace of God and holiness 
of heart. 

On each of these three points, after submitting to the 
reader, first, the Eoman dogma, next, the difference of 
opinion which the Church presents in its fathers, councils, 
and popes, he asks whether his own faith, as being based 
upon the Bible, should not remain the subject of his 
preference. 

Thus he passes in review, first, the authority of Scripture 

* "Can I Enter?" &c, p. 11. 



CONTENTS OF HIS REPLY. 



357 



(the Apocrypha, Tradition, the Vulgate, and the Bible in the 
Vulgar tongue) ; secondly, the question of unity, antiquity, 
permanence, catholicity, the hierarchy, and the services of 
the Church ; thirdly, possession of a free salvation, assur- 
ance, final perseverance, penance, and purgatory, — all 
which is submitted to the reader in a glowing, animated 
style, and with great diversity of handling. After treating 
the first and second points as a simple exposition of doctrine, 
he adopts, on arriving at the heading of worship, a narra- 
tive and occasionally dramatic style. He relates his per- 
sonal recollections of his conversations or journeys. Thus 
" the pilgrimage " is merely a description of a visit he had 
made in his youth to Einsiedeln ; while the deeply interest- 
ing episode of the old cure in the chapter on purgatory, is 
a description of what happened under his personal observa- 
tion. 

Owing to the diversity of its style, the more we read of 
the book, the more pleasure we experience. Founded on 
a believer's faith in the Word of God, written with a grace- 
ful simplicity, and interspersed with interesting stories; 
hastily compiled as it was, it reveals none the less, in its 
numerous pages, evidence of conscientious research and 
extensive scholarship. Moreover, it was widely circulated, 
and frequently quoted, and remained not only a monument 
of my father's industry, but also, in one particular respect, 
a lucid and complete manual which it was very easy to 
consult. After several reprints of it had been issued, my 
father, in a preface to the fourth edition (Brussels, 1854), 
stated, that He Who makes use of the smallest instrumen- 
talities to accomplish the designs of His grace, had blessed 
the scriptural truth which the work contained. 



358 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAK 



Not content with reprinting some extracts from the work 
in 1840 and in 1843, he frequently took up his pen as new 
controversies arose. For example, in March 1839 he was 
the first to accept the challenge which a certain Abbe' 
Espanet had flung out to the Protestant clergy. The Abbe 
was a Lent preacher in Geneva, whose violent language 
especially excited the reformed population, inasmuch as 
it was uttered at the time when Father Eavignan and the 
Abbe Combalot were holding out Protestant virtues as a 
pattern to Parisian Catholics.* In 1843, he wrote an 
answer to a Catholic of Versoix. In 1845, he replied to 
the attack of the Abbe Angelin, in his publication, " Sec- 
tarians and the Primitive Faith." In 1846, he was induced 
to publish " A Friendly Eeply from an Old Soldier of the 
Gospel," to a paper signed "A Veteran and Good Catholic." 
In 1851, he addressed his " Beclamations Publiques " to the 
Abbe Mermilliod; and replied, in 1852, to the "Catholic 
Annals of Geneva." Lastly, in 1853, he published a fresh 
edition of his tract, " What Men Call our Prejudices against 
Popery, is our Heart Belief in the Bible." 

It was only most unwillingly, however, that he partici- 
pated in this paper war, which, as he himself said, too easily 
diverted the soul from better and eternal things. At the 
same time, he no less felt " that, if patience and courtesy 
required him to allow free speech to his adversaries, so long 
as they confined themselves to personalities, he could not 
concede the licence when their attacks were directed against 
the truth of God."-f" 

* " The Priest and the Minister ; or, The Reformation as it is : Letter 
from the Rev. Dr Malan to Two Priests." 
f "Our Doctrinal Anarchy," p. 4. 



STATE ME XT OF HIS OBJECT. 



359 



His constant aim, too, was to handle every question in the 
light of faith in the authority of the Gospel. This was the 
ground he had already assumed in his work, " Can I Enter?" 
and again, in his "Questions of a Genevese," in 1844, as 
well as in his "Manual of a True Protestant," 1845. 

The three " Questions of a Genevese, on the Particular 
Doctrines of the Church of Rome," consist of a re-issue 
(with a few notes and explanations) of his edition of three 
English works of reformed controversy, compiled in the 
seventeenth century. They treat of Protestant rejection of 
the mass, of Mariolatry (translated from Willet, Synopsis 
Papismi, 1600), and of the reading of the Bible in the 
vulgar tongue. 

" His object," he says, " is to provoke a sincere dis- 
cussion, much needed in Geneva." " Its people love the 
truth," while he seemed to " detect an awakening of atten- 
tion to these subjects in the Eomish parishes of the 
cantons of Geneva." The following is his explanation of 
the little success the preaching of the gospel meets with 
among certain Romanists : — " A species of idealism, a 
religion of imagination and poetry, or of brilliant, but too 
indefinite and too confused, conception, engages and arouses 

the feelings A sensuous devotion may captivate 

souls that hanker after mere emotions. It offers them 
ready food, and a religion, so to speak, ready made, accom- 
modating itself easily to the exigencies of a contemplative 
mind, and of an ardent and impassioned heart." * 

Ear from wishing to copy the Church of Rome by 
saying that, out of Protestantism, there is no salvation, he 
declares " that everywhere, where Christ is proclaimed, 

* " First Question," p. 113. 



360 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



salvation is to be had ;" and that, " if the Eomanist looks 
with faith to the one sacrifice of the Savionr, by that he 
abjures papacy, and experiences the benefit of the promise 
made of God to faith." * 

At the close of the third question; "reminding his 
readers that the writings of actual controversialists, such 
as Wiseman and Mcehler, are but the repetitions of 
errors encountered in those very writings of old time to 
which he is now referring, he addresses his Protestant 
fellow-citizens especially, with the view of submitting to 
their attention, in a few glowing words, the true meaning 
of their old Eeformation symbol, ' Post tenebras lux.' " 

As for the "Manual of a True Protestant," it is a 
little catechism of popular controversy, based on the 
authority of Scripture texts, and designed especially for 
evangelists and colporteurs. It was translated into Eng- 
lish, soon reached a second edition in French, and is in 
use still. 

Engaged in controversy, my father displayed, not merely 
the believer in the gospel, but the true Protestant and 
Genevese patriot. No one loved his country more than he 
did ; no one realised more than he, the tie that bound 
every true Genevese Protestant to the ancient confessors 
and defenders of the faith.f 

* " First Question," p. 118. 

f " I love my country. I have ever honoured and loved its paternal 
government. I seek its peace : of this, I and mine have given proofs." 
{Reclamations de VAuteur de la Fete-Dieu, a MM. les Redacteurs du 
Federal, published by my father, in connection with an article in that 
journal, June 13,1843.) In speaking thus, he alluded doubtless to the 
way in which, at the commencement of the year, at the time of the riots in 
February, he had sent one of his sons, whom youth might well have absolved 
rom such service, to the succour of the government. 



WITNESSES A GOOD CONFESSION. 361 

" Already, and more than once," he says in the passage, 
a portion of which is quoted in the note, " I have had to 
oppose myself, in our dear Geneva, to the scorn, the 
attacks, the encroachments of Eomanism. I am confident 
that I have done this with as much moderation as truth 
requires, as well as with the energy which it demands. I 
have respected persons, while I denounced error or heresy. 
I am a Genevese, and, as such, I think that same Bible, 
which has made and ennobled my native city, ought to 
rule among us, above every superstition and doctrine of 
men. Geneva must perish if she rejects the Bible. I am 
a Protestant, and, as such, I think that Eomanism, even in 
its most modified form, is as far removed from evangelical 
faith as the merits of man from the grace of God. I am, 
above all, a Christian, and, as such, I think that the 
eternal salvation of my fellow-countrymen is not to be 
found in Popery, because it is only in J esus Christ, God 
blessed for ever : — Who has perfected a salvation for His 
Church, through faith in His blood, without the aid of 
human merit. For this reason, as a Genevese who fears 
God, I am bound, with all my might, to uphold, in our 
native land, the authority of the Bible, the purity of our 
holy faith, and the dignity of the true cross of Christ. 
Many will blame me, some will be offended, others will 
despise me ; but who ever defended truth, whether in reli- 
gion, politics, or science, without encountering opposition ? 
And what is there to be wondered at, if he, who main- 
tains the cause of the gospel, is set at nought by the 
world r 

Nowhere do these sentiments of a Christian patriot shine 
out more brightly than in two publications issued by him 



362 



LIFE OF CMBAU MA LAN. 



in 1842, " Eome and Geneva, or, The Impossible;" and " The 
Future of Eomanism in Geneva," The last (a pamphlet of 
fifty pages) deserves particular notice. After having 
recalled in it the vital principle of the Eeformation itself ; 
after having shown the real action of this principle in cer- 
tain of the conversions to Protestantism of which it was 
the instrument; he argues thence that Eomanism, which is 
Trinitarian in its character, will never recede except as the 
Bible advances, nor yield its ground except to this principle 
of grace, " Man cannot earn salvation." Then addressing 
himself directly to the Protestant families of the Eepublic 
of Geneva, " as one shuddering at the bare idea of a Catholic 
Geneva," he exhibits Eome " as a famished vulture, hasten- 
ing to trample the reformed city under its talons ; " and 
exhorts them "to repel that indifference and infidelity 
which alone could hand them over to its powers." "As in 
1835, faith in Jesus and in salvation by grace liberated 
Geneva from the snares and fetters of Eome," he cries, 
"let Geneva, once more regenerated and blessed from on 
high, say with confidence to her Eoman parishes, ' I am 
Christian : will you join me ? ' " 

It is evident from what point of view my father regarded 
the question. Kepresenting the ancient Genevese of the six- 
teenth century — or, to speak more exactly, the last repre- 
sentative in modern Geneva of those French emigrants who 
had succeeded, after many attempts, in rekindling and main- 
taining in that city the life and decision of a new faith — he 
had already ceased to belong to that generation whose 
frivolous shallowness had been so incessantly appealed to 
by his earnest convictions. Hence it was that, during the 
whole of his life, he felt that he was regarded as an alien in 



ALONE IN A CROWD. 



363 



that Geneva, concerning which it may be said that those 
who pray for her fear even now that, except in the event of 
some special divine interposition, she will relapse once 
more into that easy but deadly superstition from which, 
three hundred years ago, the Word of God, as imported by 
a few French emigrants, availed to rescue her. 

And this was one of the reasons why his faith and 
efforts failed to be appreciated by the majority of his 
fellow-countrymen. Endued with a warm heart — his creed, 
an intense reality ; his conscience, an irresistible power — 
he was at the same time a man of the past, a witness of 
bygone days. Hence he lived a baffled and despised life, in 
the presence of that superficialness and hollow dilettanteism 
which seems to characterise increasingly every day the 
times in which we live, more especially in a town which 
may be scarcely said to exist as it was, save in the old 
memories of some of its sons. Thus his testimony from 
the very first met with more acceptance with Eomanists, 
among whom, thanks to the discipline of their Church, the 
shallowness to which we have referred had made less way, 
or among the Protestant population of the Vaud and of 
Neufchatel, who had remained in a measure unaffected by 
the influences to which Geneva had so long succumbed. 

The fact is, that in Geneva itself his Church comprised 
very few Genevese ; while, from the outset, his ministry 
found special acceptance with foreigners and Eomanists. 
His earliest tracts have already demonstrated this.* Proud 
of the past history of their city, confident in the renown 
brought them by the memory of their antecedents, the 

* The greater part of his first tracts are narratives of conversations with 
Eomanists. 



364 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



Genevese of that day ceased to experience that hunger and 
thirst which alone prepare for the successful preaching of 
the gospel of the grace of God. Since that time, un- 
doubtedly, weary years of suffering and spoliation seem 
to have succeeded in awakening once more in that same 
population feelings with which they had so long dis- 
pensed. 

At all events it must be allowed that, after 1830, my 
..father was called upon to address himself especially to 
Eomanists. His mission, out of Geneva, was directed 
chiefly towards France and Belgium, and in Geneva 
itself the most acceptable among the literary productions 
of his latter years, are almost all composed with reference 
to Eomanists. This may be said especially of " The True 
Cross," in 1837* of « Vendelin," in 1844, and of his 
numerous tracts which he collected together in 1853, in 
the sixth volume of his " Grains de Seneve," as well as 
of others of the same kind.-f" Such were his labours 

* Ten or twelve years ago, one who devoted himself at Turin to the 
evangelisation of Italy, assured me, that of all the means which he and his 
friends had employed in their work, they knew of none which had been 
attended with such striking results as the dissemination of the two tracts, 
" The True Cross," and "La Valaisanne." " We cannot print enough of 
them," he said. 

■f We append the titles of such of his writings as have not been noticed 
hitherto. In 1844, "I have left Home and her Altars : an Account of a 
Conversion ; " in 1845, "A Eomish Priest become a Disciple of the Bible ; 
or, A Few Facts and Conversations, relative to the Abjuration of Romanism, 
made on the 5th January, 1845, in the Church of Testimony, at Geneva ; " 
in 1846, three brochures, entitled, " The Watchman and the Sentry, a Dia- 
logue between a Native Protestant and a Foreign Romanist" ; in 1847, 
"A Morning at Lauterbrunnen," "L'Essentiel, Messieurs, l'Essentiel!" 
and " Is the Religion of my Fathers that of the Fathers ? a Letter to the 
Abbe Beaujard ; " in 1852, "One Little Word;" in 1853, several minor 
tracts, " Catholics, you are not Invited to Change your Religion, but to 
become Christians, an Authentic Anecdote ;" "The Two Pieces of Wood, 



TEE TRUE PATRIOT. 



365 



among Eoman Catholics. He appears not so much in the 
light of a controversialist, as of a missionary of the grace 
of God. 

It still remains for us, however, before we close our 
history of his literary labours from the year 1830, to 
mention rapidly such efforts as have not yet been 
noticed. 

It was not merely by the zeal with which he protested in 
Geneva against everything which tended to obscure those 
truths which lie at the foundation of historical Protestant- 
ism, that he was for ever displaying the feelings of an earnest 
and devoted heart. With him these emotions were not only 
the expression of that patriotic pride which so often displays 
itself with all the greater self-complacency, from the very 
fact that those who abandon themselves to it would blush 
to display such vanity under any other form. He was 
truly and deeply attached, not merely to that which con- 
stituted, in his judgment, the greatness and glory of his 
nation, but to the nation itself ; that is, to the welfare and 
safety of his fellow-citizens. His patriotism was but one 
of the expressions of that deep devoted love with which 

or, Faith, and Superstition, an Historical Tale ; " " Do the Words, c Ave 
Maria, Gratia Plena,' comprise, 1. The Immaculate Conception, 2. The 
Title of the Mother of God, 3. The Assumption, 4. The Eoyalty, and 5. 
The Worship of the Blessed Mother of the Saviour ? — a Dialogue between 
Two Sincere Men, the one a Romanist, the other a Protestant ; " " Our 
Lady of Geneva — Is Hers to be the Temple of J erusalem, or of Gerizim ? " 
" The 'Galimatias' of Geneva and the False Prophet, a Reply to Attacks 
in which these Terms had been Employed to Designate His Teaching and 
Himself ; " " The Mass does not Recognise Jesus Christ as God, as Priest 
and Everlasting King ; " " Who Goes and Who Stays? " Many of these 
were written before 1853, but I do not find them anywhere except in the 
volume of " Grains de Seneve," which appeared in that year. Lastly, in 
1856, " The Three Visits," &c. &c. 



3G6 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAX. 



lie felt himself continually inspired towards his fellow- 
creatures. Nor do we see him waiting, so to speak, for 
such critical occasions as serve to bring into prominence 
any one skilled enough to make himself the organ of the 
sentiments of such as agree with him. His aim in address- 
ing himself to those among whom he lived was, above all 
things, to avoid attaching to himself any new influence or 
authority, but to minister to them, supremely to their 
souls. Thus the most fugitive opportunities were seized 
by him for uttering words of Christian sympathy and 
appeal. 

Let me adduce an instance of what I have just stated, 
from my own observation. In September 1838, on the 
afternoon of the Fast Day, which was on a Sunday, a small 
boat, with eight persons on board, foundered in the lake, 
under an unexpected squalL The passengers consisted of 
a merry party of friends — young men and young women, 
belonging to families of the middle class. My father 
hastened to one of their houses, the head of which was a 
member of his flock. He shortly published a tract headed, 
* Genevese, be Warned 1" in which, addressing himself to 
his " dear fellow-countrymen," he spoke to them synipa- 
thisingly as a Christian, and a minister of the gospel. It 
is well known how speedily an effect is produced among a 
people so intelligent and susceptible as the Genevese. On 
this occasion, the impression was profound. According 
to his usual custom, he followed to the cemetery the body 
of the young man whose parents he knew. After he 
had offered up a prayer, and addressed a few words to the 
weeping family, he was implored by the father of another 
of the \ictims ; who was standing by his son's grave, un- 



COMFORTS THE MOURNERS. 



367 



ministered to by any pastor, to come to him there.* I was 
present at the time, and I well remember the simple and 
touching scene when, after a brief, pathetic address, and a 
prayer into which my father flung his whole heart's utter- 
ance, we passed through the serried ranks of the crowd, — 
more than one voice heing heard to thank him, and many 
hands stretched out to grasp his in silence.")* 

Yet it was not merely the deep feeling of a kindly 
spirit; it was the earnestness of his faith as well, that 
led him to issue those occasional publications. To the 
very end of his life, he never ceased to regard himself as 
the witness for the truth in Geneva ; and, as such, he 
deemed it his duty to declare openly, as often as occasion 
offered, what he regarded as truth. Thus we find him 
in 1846 taking up his pen to refute some recently pub- 
lished assertions on the subject of the resignation of the 
Vaudois pastors. 

In the following year, he wrote on the occasion of the 
election of a new consistory summoned by the National 
Church ; after having assumed, at the commencement of 
the year, with reference to the question of a separation 
between Church and State, a position (as we shall soon 
see) at variance with that of his dissenting brethren.^ 
Finally, in 1850, he was the first of those connected with 

* It is the custom in Geneva for the ministers of the National Church to 
conduct the funeral service at the house of the departed, and not to attend 
the procession to the grave. 

f Many years afterwards, on the occasion of the sudden death of a young 
man in our neighbourhood, my father published a few lines headed, " Dear 
fellow-parishioners, let us watch, for we know not at what hour our Lord 
may come for us.'" 

X " What kind of a consistory will be chosen ? will it be thoroughly Protes- 
tant, or will it not be selected from the Arian, if not the Unitarian, party \ " 



368 LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



the religious awakening who protested, at the same time 
with his old opponent, Professor Cheneviere, against Pro- 
fessor Scherer's views on the inspiration of Scripture.* 

In 1836 there appeared a little book called " New 
Stories and New Hymns." As for the pamphlet " On 
Eeligious Scepticism," which he published anonymously 
that same year, it merely established one point, which is, 
that its author had never experienced that fatal paralysis 
of faith. He looks upon doubts as mere obscurities of the 
intellect ; his heart never wavered in its trust. 

The most important of his publications yet to be noticed 
are his hymns for schools, which are not only circulated, 
at the present day, among all French-speaking Protestants, 
but the melodies attached to them have found their way 
abroad, and even penetrated into Eomish schools. 

The first edition appeared in 1837, under the title, 
" Sixty Hymns and Spiritual Songs." "Yours is an 
amiable and happy age," he says in the preface addressed 
to the young, "and a gracious God Who has given you 
your voices as He has given its song to the bird, bids you 
use them in His praise. And so I have taken care to pro- 
vide you with no frivolous numbers. I dedicate this book 
to you with the sincerest and most tender affection, and to 
Jesus, Who calls Himself the Good Shepherd, I commend 
you as the lambs of the flock He feeds." 

* " The authority of the Bible is revealed only by the Holy Spirit ;" and, 
shortly afterwards, " The whole Bible is the very Word of God." It is 
of the former of these that De Goltz says (Geneve B.elig., p. 567), " Malan 
goes to the very bottom of the question with tact and fairness. Indeed, 
although he does not expressly state it in so many words, the distinction 
between divine authority and inspiration lies at the bottom of his whole 
argument." 



ORIGIN OF " THE SIXTY HYMNS: 1 



369 



It would "be superfluous to praise them in this place, as 
they are more generally known than even the Songs of 
Zion. The hymns in the first part are more especially 
intended for worship. The second contains sacred poems 
of various kinds, such as " Dawn," " Evening," " Spring," 
"The Primrose," "The Swallow," "The Lark," " The 
Walk," " Autumn," " Winter/' and many others that, with 
their bright and pleasant melodies, will not soon be for- 
gotten by those who have heard them sung. After having 
enlarged this small collection in successive editions, he 
issued the last (and fourth) in 1853. It contains one 
hundred and twenty-seven poems. The writing of these 
" Sixty Songs " was one of those incidents which gave 
evidence of the working power of which he was cap- 
able. My mother had asked him for some hymns for her 
school. There were, up to that time, only a few already 
written by him at various times, and which existed merely 
in manuscript copies. My father, without making any pro- 
mise, set to work, and, as was his custom whenever he was 
absorbed in some engrossing undertaking, barred his study- 
door against all comers. After an entire seclusion, inter- 
rupted only by family worship, and his ministerial duties, 
he came down into the dining-room, where he had not 
shown himself the whole time, and, laying on the table the 
MS. of sixty hymns and sacred songs, with airs for each, 
said to my mother, " Here, dear Jenny, is what our gracious 
God has enabled me to do during these six weeks." 

Unfortunately, some of the best of them were soon got 

hold of for other compilations, and their language so 

altered, that those who knew them, in their original form, 

would scarcely have recognised them. Some of them are 

2 A 



370 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



to be met with, even now, in numerous school-books, more 
or less transformed, and very frequently attributed to 
other authors.* 

He continued to publish almost every year one or more 
new works. I have quoted several which have a special 
character; their titles will be found in the lists of his 
writings. I confine myself here to mentioning the follow- 
ing : — 

In 1845, he issued two descriptions of pious deathbeds : 
" The Christian does not Die," and " Tears and Consola- 
tions." The last describes the death of the little daughter 
of one of my sisters, and the two indicate the train of 
feeling into which the illness of one of my brothers had 
led him. 

" The Four Voices of God," (Creation, Conscience, Law, 
and the Gospel), published in 1 847, displays in its opening 
pages a singular solemnity of style and sentiment. That 
benevolent sympathy for children and for sufferers, so 
distinguishable in his earliest writings, appears, from time 
to time, with the special charm with which a kindly dis- 
position invests the old, in the tract, " He hath Done all 
Things Well !" (in 1847), and especially in another, " God 
has Saved us Once for All — it is Enough," (1856). 

"Julia's Progress," "Mark and Janot," (1847), " Lis- 
beth and Jean -Marie -Joseph, "(1848), " How Glorious is 
the Gospel," and " Camille showed his Faith by his 
Works," (in 1856), are, like the majority of his publica- 

* On the first page of the fourth edition, we read^ " The author requests 
his brethren to consider the injury they -would do him by transferring these 
hymns to their own compilations. He therefore begs that they will not do 
so any more." 



LATEST LITERARY EFFORTS. 



371 



tions, descriptions of facts which he had himself witnessed. 
The charming dialogue, "Mark and Janot," was written 
" after nature," and sent by my father to two misdoers, 
who derived so much benefit from it, that their parents 
felt it their duty to express a sense of their obligation to 
its author. As for " Camille," it was a narrative of an 
incident which occurred more than thirty years ago. I 
knew Camille myself personally. 

" When Do You Lie ?" " Every Eeligion is Good if we 
only Follow it," (in 1847), and "The Catechism and the 
Gospel," (in 1852), are scenes stamped on the religious life 
of Geneva ; the two last, in particular, characterising that 
life of the lower classes with which he was so entirely 
familiar. 

As will appear, if we run our eyes over the lists of his 
writings, he published a dozen tracts after 1861, and the 
greater part of them he composed for America, where he 
had recently met with eager and attentive readers. Among 
his latest writings there is one which, possibly owing to 
the circumstance that it was issued anonymously, pro- 
duced an indisputable impression in the religious world of 
France. I allude to a brochure which appeared in 1851 
with the heading, " Are You Happy — thoroughly Happy ? 
Sincere Advice from Certain Friends." The subject had 
been suggested to him by the Chevalier Eynard, whom he 
frequently met at that time. It was very eulogistically 
noticed in several journals; indeed its seventy -five pages 
well deserved all the notice they received. Different, in 
more respects than one, in style and thought, from all that 
my father had previously written ; graceful and attractive 
in language ; it was well calculated to produce a serious 



372 LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



impression on educated men, whom the bustle of the 
world, and the influence of an active and honourable life, 
withheld from giving heed to the promises of the gospel. 
Then, too, the whole is written from a point of view 
entirely superior to mere ecclesiastical differences. Catholic 
and Protestant may read it alike without encountering 
anything bearing, in the remotest degree, on the traditional 
form of their respective creeds. 

Such was my father's public life from 1830. Evange- 
lising journeys, with domestic incidents, formed the only 
interruption to his regular pulpit ministry. His religious 
work among strangers who came to his house, and his 
literary activity we have endeavoured to set forth. It only 
remains for us to add what bears upon his attitude (during 
his latter years) towards different Free Churches, as well 
as the National Church of his country. This I shall 
endeavour to do in a few words, after having first recalled 
my personal reminiscences of his private life. 



BOOK HI. 



MALAY'S PRIVATE AND DOMESTIC LIFE— HIS CLOSING 
RELATIONS TO THE CHURCH— THE EVENING OF 
HIS LIFE, AND HIS DEATH. 



CHAPTER I. 

MALAN IN THE BOSOM OF HIS FAMILY. 

" There in sweet strains of kindred music blending, 
All the home voices meet at day's decline ; 
One are those tones as from one heart ascending — 
There is my home : " 

Thus far, in describing my father's public work, I have 
had to deal simply with facts in the knowledge of all, and 
doctrines which any one may judge. 

At the same time, it has been my duty to temper any 
approval with discretion, and to remember that these 
facts in his life, public though they were, could only 
be regarded by me from one point of view. While, as 
for doctrines, I cannot but be conscious that formulas of 
his, which I scarcely felt I could use, were in him but the 



374 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



expressions of a faith, to the largeness and simplicity of 
which I have never ceased to aspire, 

In presence, however, of the attempt to record the per- 
sonal life of one of the best of parents, snch reserve ceases 
to be necessary. The task, as easy as it is grateful, in- 
spires me with but one sentiment of emotion, naturally 
aroused on the review of a past which has gradually lost 
its brightness under the influence of the changes of time. 
Could I at any time be led to hesitate in the task I have 
undertaken, it would be from a consideration whether 
sundry details, which filial affection loves to recall, would, 
in the nature of things, prove interesting to the generality 
of my readers. This much, however, I may venture to 
say — and say it to all — that it pleased God to give me, in 
my father, one whose excellence grew upon me the more 
closely we were brought into contact. Experiencing this 
most fully during his life, I have realised it even more 
during the past year, which has been devoted to the per- 
usal of his most confidential letters, and the survey of the 
fugitive notes of his youth. Truly, I feel justified in declar- 
ing openly my sense of an inestimable blessing, for which 
I have never ceased to give thanks to God. Throughout all 
these innumerable papers I have failed to encounter a word 
or thought — I will not say, which filial affection would have 
urged me to destroy, — but even which I would hesitate to 
communicate to any whom it might concern. If they 
reveal the characteristics of our common humanity with 
its infirmities and imperfections, they show none of those 
passing blots from which it would seem almost impossible 
that the records of so long a life should be free. Not a 
single sentiment have I discovered, nor a single word, 



THE INNER CIRCLE. 



375 



which my feelings as a son would have prompted me to 
forget. Nor have I found reason for the least regret that 
I have been thus led to penetrate my father's inmost life 
and most hidden thoughts. Here, even more than in his 
public life, he has stood out before me such as I ever knew 
him when he was upon earth, in the familiar intercourse of 
the domestic circle. He appears not merely as among the 
saintly few who dwell from day to day in the very pre- 
sence of God, but as one to whom it would have been a 
painful effort to live otherwise. 

An extract from a confidential letter, written by him to 
one of my sisters in 1850, will serve as an illustration : — 

" There is nothing little for a soul to which all things 
are dignified by the presence and government of God. 
How often is the actual help of the Holy Spirit more 
abundantly evident in a trivial incident, than in a great 
deed. The wick of a lamp, ever so little charred, will 
smoke ; and our Saviour bids us have ours well trimmed 
as well as well furnished with oil. But it is not by haste, 
nor by heedlessness, still less by impatience, that the 
wick is cleaned and trimmed." 

" Even though we lost all the grand and beautiful re- 
membrances that our father has bequeathed to us," said 
one of my brothers to me once, at the close of a conversa- 
tion on some points in which we had been led t to abandon 
the traditions of our childhood, "there is one treasure 
which we have all received from him, which alone would 
suffice to render his memory a holy and a sacred thing in 
our eyes. It is that truth which he has impressed upon 
our souls, that God is not an idea, but a living reality ; not 
a Being more or less separated from the details of our daily 



376 



LIFE OF CJESAB MA LAN. 



life, but the living omnipresent One, the actual witness of 
our very thoughts, to Whom every day and every instant 
of the day we are all accountable. And," added he, " our 
father has not been satisfied with telling us this, he has 
done much more and much better. He has convinced us 
of it by the practical illustration of his own daily life. He 
has indeed walked before us, always and to the very end, 
c as serving Him Who is invisible. 5 " The truth of this re- 
mark I am in a better position perhaps than any to appre- 
ciate. Not only was my father the last man in the world 
to sustain an assumed character ; not only would this have 
been impossible to a nature so impulsive as his; but having 
honoured me with a complete intimacy from a very early 
age, he thus exhibited himself to me with complete unre- 
serve. Meanwhile, during all the years that I lived under 
Iris care, as well as during the after period in which not a 
week passed without my meeting him more than once, I 
never observed in him anything but what contributed to 
confirm the assertion here made. Never did I see in him 
a gesture, or hear from him a syllable, which, looking at it 
from his point of view, I could regard as likely to yield 
liim subsequent regret. Not that I would have it inferred 
that his manner was cold and constrained ; or that he was 
wanting in that ease and freedom which alone can secure 
the society of even the best of fathers from being occa- 
sionally irksome to a son ; precisely the reverse. To the 
very end of his life, little children, so quick by instinct to 
discover any tendency to restrain their liberty, might have 
been seen pressing eagerly round him, regarding him as 
"their true friend." As for young men, I can only say 
that I never felt so thoroughly at my ease as when I was 



GENUINE SYMPATHY. 



377 



with him. Though I regarded him as the very personifica- 
tion of conscience, I felt none the less that he was always 
desirous to put himself in my place. He did not appear 
to me as one of those who, not satisfied with their own con- 
scientiousness, aim at forcing upon their children their 
personal scruples. He was for ever urging me to recognise 
the personal voice within me, the voice of God (as I myself 
had learned) speaking to my soul. I saw that, with 
his kindness and discrimination, he sympathised with me 
entirely in all that was not wrong; while, at the same 
time, I felt so certain of his judgment and absolute discre- 
tion, that if I chanced, through the buoyancy of youthful 
feelings, to transgress in the least degree the limits of justice 
or charity, I knew that he to whom I spoke was as incap- 
able of sparing me weakly as of reproving me harshly. I 
never hesitated to disclose to him my whole mind, even 
when I differed from him. Indeed, he would have soon 
detected the least symptom of dissimulation, while he him- 
self was the first to set me the example of that entire 
independence of thought which recognises conscience only 
as its absolute sovereign. Yet if, with all this freedom and 
frankness, I forgot for a moment my duty towards him or 
others, I was arrested at once, not indeed by a spoken 
word (for he would have shrunk from seeing me blush at 
his rebuke), but by that authoritative deportment and ex- 
pression, which he held it his right at any time to assume, 
even in moments of most confidential intercourse. What- 
ever might be the topic of our conversation, I was sure of 
being understood, if not of being approved. It is univer- 
sally allowed, that the most irritating of all discussions are 
those which are indefinitely prolonged because the dis- 



378 



LIFE OF CM8AR MALAK 



putants fail to ascertain the measure in which they are 
agreed. "With a man of his intelligence and benevolence, 
I had no fear of this. 

Over recollections of a father of whom I am justified in 
speaking in terms such as these, it is easier far to linger 
than to glance. Without attempting, however, to present 
him in these pages as he was to me in daily life, I shall 
confine myself to recalling my personal reminiscences of 
him, commencing from my earliest childhood. 

Among the first is the circumstance of hearing him 
converse in Latin with my eldest brother. It was his wish 
to spare his son the distress occasioned to most children 
by the study of that language, as witnessed by himself in 
his position of master in the college. For this purpose he 
determined, from the first, to address him only in Latin. 
Afterwards, when he was old enough to learn to read, my 
father prepared a book containing vignettes drawn and 
coloured by himself, bavins; underneath little stories in 
that language. As a result of this method, Latin is, to 
this day, my brother's (i mother tongue." * I only mention 
this as an example of the zeal and assiduity my father 
displayed in the prosecution of any design on which he 
had resolved. Generally speaking, indeed, he concerned 

* I find the following in a letter from Mr Brcien, dated from Geneva, in 
1S17, quoted in Dr Mason's Memoirs, p. 460 : — ""What do you think of 
my sitting down at table at Malan's house, in Geneva, with his little son, 
six years old, who not only knew the name of everything he wanted in 
Latin, but could sustain a conversation in that language. It may amuse 
you to hear, that when Dr Mason and myself had engaged to dine with his 
father, he was told, as something extraordinary, that two Americans were 
to be there. His first exclamation, on seeing us, was, ' Americani ? non 
sunt mm planus ! ' He had no other idea of Americans than what he had 
derived from prints, and therefore very naturally expected to see us in the 
feathers and fantastic garb of Indians." 



IN THE STUDY. 



379 



himself with the education of each of us. My first lessons 
of any importance — my first analyses — are linked with his 
memory. Every evening at a certain hour, about the year 
1829, 1 saw my elder brothers and sisters go into his study 
with their paper books. In course of time I was permitted 
to be present. Alternate lessons in logic and rhetoric 
formed the staple of the studies.* At a later period one 
of my brothers and myself read with him some Latin 
authors and the elements of geometry. Aided by his 
varied experience, he gave us, further, our first ideas of 
natural philosophy. To accomplish this he constructed 
electric machines, one of them of large dimensions, with 
the various appendages then in use. Sometimes, on fine 
nights, he would adjust his large telescope, to show us the 
satellites of Jupiter, or the mountains of the moon; at 
others, collecting us round his microscope, he made us 
handle, as it were, the proofs of the infinite goodness and 
power of the Creator. He never failed to correct us every 
time that we used a faulty grammatical expression. 
"Whenever a dispute arose upon a point of language, or of 
history, for instance, he did not suffer the thing to remain 
unsettled. " We must never put back till to-morrow the 
settlement of any doubt," was what he said. When the 
dictionary or grammar had decided the point at issue, he 
would exclaim, in a tone of satisfaction, "There is one 
error less ! " 

My most vivid recollections, however, of that time gather 
round certain seasons, in which he used to call us into his 
room to tell us stories. It was on Sunday evenings after 

* It will be evident at once, how thoroughly this course of instruction 
serves, of itself, to illustrate the turn of his mind. 



380 



LIFE OF CAESAE MALAX. 



he had had his tea. We used to find him seated in an 
easy-chair in front of the fire. My brothers and sisters 
settled themselves right and left of him, while my place — I 
was very small at the time — was usually at his feet, on a 
thick rug which decorated the hearth. There, as I watched 
the flame flickering on the logs of wood, while the fire died 
slowly down, and the shadows danced on the Dutch tiles 
of which the sides of the fire-place was composed, I 
heard him tell us the story of the Watch-Chain, Baoul, or 
Theobald the Iron-Hearted, with several other original tales, 
which appeared subsequently in his " Veritable ami des 
enfans," with "Diclier le Vagabond," "Jean des Eaquettes, 
and " The German Tinder Dealer." Before publishing them 
he wished to test their effect upon us, and so, by the follow- 
ing Sunday, we had to set down what we had heard — 
while the hints he gave me one day, after I had tried my 
hand at writing a page, I remember, and find useful still. 
He was, indeed, much more than a careful and exact 
grammarian. He never failed, though it was only by a 
word, and that most kindly spoken, to indicate any defect 
of thought or character, so frequently betrayed by inaccu- 
racy of language or style. Let it be added, however, that 
while he thus laid the utmost stress on clearness and 
precision of thought, he was anything but a pedant. 
What he had in view, in his teaching, was not so much 
the idea that struck himself, as how to enable his pupil to 
apprehend it. Hence these lessons were eagerly looked 
forward to by us ; and, as for me, the day when I had to 
exchange his teaching for a tutor's, remains among the 
saddest of my earliest boyhood. 

At a very early period he began to teach us drawing ; 



ffl TEE WORKSHOP. 



381 



and ever afterwards, when, (among the first in Geneva to 
do so,) he applied to A. Calame to instruct us, he scarcely 
ever omitted to come into the room where the lesson 
was being given, if it w T as only for a few moments, either 
to exchange a few words with "the dear master," or to go 
from one to another with a word of encouragement, or 
uniformly kind criticism.* 

With reference to his sons, in particular, — he it was who 
gave us an early taste for handicraft. When the weather 
was bad, and we were at liberty, he opened his workshop. 
It was a large room, containing a lathe for his own use, 
and a smaller one for us, a forge with a locksmith's 
belongings, a carpenter's bench, and a large assortment of 
tools of every kind, many of which had been manu- 
factured by himself. Here he instructed us in the art of 
distinguishing the various kinds of wood, and estimating 
their value, as well as of making and using tools ; or sum- 
moned us to help him in some particular task. 

He united, to great muscular strength, singular certainty 
and skilful lightness in the use of his hands. Partial to 
manly exercises, he was the first to teach me riding and 
fencing. 

* I remember well the day lie sent me, about 1830, to ask Calame, at 
that time very little known, if he could come and give lessons at our house. 
I found the artist by the bedside of his aged mother. He came the next 
day, and I have still the oak branch which he painted before me in sepia, 
and which he handed to me with the remark, " Here is my first copy." 
Calame never forgot what he loved to call my father's kindness ; he often 
referred to it with me, as well as to the words of faith and piety he heard 
him utter. Meanwhile my father, for his part, never wavered in his sincere 
attachment to one whom he regarded, not only as a gifted artist, but also 
as a true and humble believer. At Mentone, Calame, at the point of 
death, expressed his desire to see my father once more, and one of his last 
regrets was caused by his being informed that Malan had anticipated him, — 
as it happened only by a few days,— in his entrance into everlasting rest. 



382 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



Not that he was our only instructor. He had not suffi- 
cient leisure for the purpose. But he ascertained for him- 
self, before handing us over to masters, in what quarter 
our special tastes lay. What he especially desired was, 
that whatever we undertook, we should do well ; and he 
omitted nothing in furnishing us with the means. ' He set 
up for my eldest brother a bookbinder's workshop, com- 
pletely furnished. Afterwards, on noticing the interest 
with which another of us employed himself with a 
child's printing press, he made him a small one of iron, 
with all the proper accompaniments. The printer, who 
was then about twelve, was soon informed that, as his 
printed matter was circulating among the public, he ought 
to take out the requisite license. It was for this printing 
press of the Pre-Beni that my father wrote his " speaking 
vignettes." 

In spite of the unfailing and varied character of his 
activity, I cannot help remembering that, much as he 
enjoyed the country, he never occupied himself with horti- 
culture. It was a sine qua non with him that the fruits of 
his exertions should be rapid and reliable. What could 
not be calculated upon with certainty failed to attract 
his mind, as it might have attracted others. 

Fond as he was of giving away, he would have nothing 
lost. While out for a walk, I have seen him stop to pick 
up a nail, a pin, or some other trifling thing ; remarking, as 
he did so, that he would one day find a use for it. It is 
true, he possessed the talent of turning everything to 
account. On this point, he used often to quote to us, when 
we were children, the example of the hero of our age, 
Bobinson Crusoe. One day, I remember, he brought me a 



DECENCY AND ORDER. 



383 



knife, the handle of which he had made out of an old bone 
bleached by the sun, while he had forged the blade out of 
a piece of steel which I had seen him pick up in the road 
some days before. 

Devoted to method and order, he left their impress on 
every household arrangement. In connection with this, he 
congratulated himself on the year he had spent as a young 
man in a bank at Marseilles. He required the members 
of his family to be punctual, whether at family prayers or at 
meals, the signal for which was given, precisely at the 
hour, by a bell hung outside the house. Each of us had a 
set of tablets, in which he would show us how to enter 
hour by hour, at the beginning of each new season, what- 
ever we had to do each day of the week. He was very 
urgent in requiring his boys to rise early, and very careful 
to see that we had a short time for recreation after every 
meal. In summer our first lesson was at six o'clock. 
He was generally up at four himself ; and, during the fine 
summer days, we often saw him as we met for prayers and 
breakfast, returning from his morning walk. 

If his activity was constant, it was by no means restless. 
No one ever found him in a hurry or confusion, just as, on 
the other hand, he was neither a dreamer nor a chatterer. 
His recreation was manual labour. 

It would be difficult to mention all the various things 
he could do. Sometimes I saw him with a graver's tool in 
his hand, a glazier's diamond, or a tinsmith's irons. Then, 
again, he would be devoted to making ink or sealing wax, 
or some other preparation. On other occasions, when he 
had a few spare hours, he would paint, or compose music, or 
(as was the case especially during the years I most vividly 



384 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



recall), lie would busy himself with lithography, or in his 
workshop. There, putting on a workman's waistcoat and 
apron, he applied himself vigorously to whatever he had 
to do. Always thorough in his undertakings, he might 
often be heard singing a hymn while he was at work, or 
whistling the air of it ; and when he succeeded in what he 
was about, he generally came to my mother or me to make 
us partners of his satisfaction. It may be added that he 
had a habit of succeeding; and that through the house, and 
through the houses of his friends, he was looked upon as 
able to repair anything. I have seen him accomplish, in 
this respect, perfect marvels of ingenuity and skill. 

But to return to my earliest recollections. On Thursday 
afternoons, when the weather was fine, we used generally 
to go out for a walk with him, all together. Getting into 
the country as quickly as possible, We halted on the bank 
of a stream, or under a cluster of trees, or in some other soli- 
tary nook ; there, — the little ones being tired with running 
about, — he would gather us round him, and enlarge upon the 
habits of various field animals, or tell us the names of the 
flowers we might happen to bring him. He showed us in 
everything the wisdom and goodness of God, Whose pre- 
sence was ever filling his souL It was on one of these occa- 
sions that, observing me striking a little branch in a hedge 
with my stick, he asked me to bring it to him ; and when 
we stopped to rest he began, with his pen-knife in his hand, 
to give me my first ideas of the construction of one of 
those leaves, the wonderful development of which I had 
been thoughtlessly arresting. 

Sometimes, in the summer, he took us rambles of some 
days' duration through the surrounding country. I was 



EVENINGS AT HOME. 



385 



six years old when I saw him set out with my elder bro- 
ther to visit the Salines de Bex. The following year I was 
one of the party, and that time he took ns to the valley 
of the Lac de Joux, in the Jura, and the iron-works of 
Vallorbes. Afterwards, from time to time, it was my good 
fortune to accompany him on various walking expeditions. 
Equipped with a light coat and knapsack, he strode on at 
a famous rate, and, in spite of my youth, I had enough to 
do to keep up with him. I have given elsewhere an account 
furnished from my recollection of one of these trips. They 
were occasions on which he showed himself the most de- 
lightful of touring companions, took part in all the delights 
of my age, and identified himself with all my enthusiasm. 

In our earlier years, however, it was in the winter time 
that he associated himself most forcibly with our young 
life. With it came the long evenings, which we spent 
with our mother round the drawing-room table. There, 
every one was occupied. Whilst my sisters were busy 
with needlework, I drew or read aloud. Often we had 
music. One of my brothers would accompany my sister 
on the flute — she playing the piano — and we generally 
finished by singing together one of my father's or Bost's 
hymns. To the little ones, meanwhile, winter was 
supremely the time of " lantern " evenings, and the glories 
of New Year's day. 

The optical lantern (we were forbidden to say magic) 
was a phantasmagoria of considerable size, still in my pos- 
session, and a source of great delight to my children. Its 
slides were all painted by my father himself. He had 
wished, in his first journey to England, to learn the art of 

painting on glass, but as an exorbitant price was demanded 

2 b 



386 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



for communicating the secret, he set to work to find it out 
for himself, and soon succeeded. He then proceeded to 
paint natural history subjects, cheerful family scenes, &c, 
"but especially moral stories, as also a series of our Lord's 
parables. 

I may be permitted to describe here one of those pic- 
tures. As I exhibit them to my own children, they carry 
me back to the time when, myself a child, at the given 
signal, a blast from an ox-horn sounding from the top of 
the stair-case, we hurried, a delighted audience, into the 
darkened room where my father, standing before his lan- 
tern, awaited our presence in front of the great screen. 

As an illustration, " The story of poor Diego." The first 
scene presented the negro, as black as jet. Standing before 
his hut, shadowed by a palm-tree, he smokes his pipe ; while 
he watches his wife rocking their infant in a tortoise-shell 
cradle. Next, he is to be seen going to his field, with his 
hoe and rake upon his shoulder, passing a hedge on his 
way, the resemblance of which to those in our country I 
find a little too exact, but which I fully appreciated at six 
years old. In the third scene, the drama commences. 
The first thing that strikes us is the appearance of two 
Portuguese. Not to libel the Portuguese of the present 
day, they appear with the feathered head-gear and dress of 
the sixteenth century. One of them, with his sabre, points 
out Diego to his companion, who is armed with a musket, 
while the poor negro, whom the latter has just seized 
by the arm, stretches out the hand that is still at 
liberty, in the direction of his hut. But the " robbers of 
men" (as the Bible calls them, so our father invariably 
added) are merciless ; and their canoe is next seen quitting 



LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 



387 



the bank, and carrying off the groaning victim to the slave- 
ship, anchored a little lower down in the road-stead. This 
slide disappears from our view, and the next transports us 
to the plantation of the Antilles. A white man is seen 
belabouring an unhappy black, who had been forced by the 
scorching sun to suspend for a moment his heavy drudgery ; 
doubtless to dream of his wife and his poor little one. 
Then comes the last scene. Dieox) is stretched on a 
wretched pallet, in a pent-house, stretching out his hand 
towards heaven, just as he is about to die in his wretched- 
ness. " But, my children," said our father, as he heard us 
little ones trying in vain to keep back our tears, " don't 
think that our loving heavenly Father has forgotten 
Diego. He knew what He was doing, in allowing the poor 
negro to be torn from his far-off African home. Diego 
met, at the Antilles, a missionary — a true Christian. He 
spoke to him of that glorious Saviour Who had suffered for 
black men as well as white. Hence you see him on his 
bed of death giving thanks to God who had thus caused the 
message of ' good news ' to reach him ; and beseeching him 
to convey the same tidings to his wife in the land of the 
blacks ; a request with which the missionary promises com- 
pliance." It will be seen that my father, while he thus 
inspired his children with utter horror of the robbers of 
men, was not at the same time altogether an abolitionist, 
as the term is understood in our day. 

But all these lantern scenes would merit description. 
One of my brothers, to whom I was showing them not very 
long ago, put them aside after glancing at them. " Stay !" 
he exclaimed, " I seem to hear him yet, telling us the story 
of the Samaritan, or the good Shepherd, or the debtors, or 



388 



LIFE OF CjFSJB MALAN. 



especially of the servant standing, his lamp in his hand, 
listening, with his hand stretched towards the door, to dis- 
cover whether the footsteps he heard were those of his 
tarrying master; while through the window might be seen the 
moon going down and the sunrise crimsoning the horizon." 
Amongst them, also, were amusing slides ; for example, a 
school-boy, his cheeks red with cold, his cap on his ears, 
appears shouting, " Take care ! " at the bottom of a slide 
on which his sledge has already overturned a companion 
in the snow; or again, the hunt after the cat that had 
stolen the roast-beef and was being pursued by the old 
cook, armed with a spit; the man-cook brandishing his 
cleaver, the master of the house re-adjusting his spectacles, 
and an old neighbour joining in with a hand-screen. As I 
recall my vivid remembrances of these evenings, I cannot 
forget the wish expressed by my father, that some intelli- 
gent colporteurs could be sent out, whose sole business it 
should be to collect the villagers together on winter even- 

o o 

ings to witness similar exhibitions. Of course, it would 
be requisite that such men should be distinguished by that 
thorough reality of character which made the transition as 
easy as possible, and free of all outrage to the feelings of the 
spectator, from sacred to secular subjects. For myself, I try 
to recall his very words, when I am relating to my children 
the story of Diego, or of James the chimney-sweep; or 
when, with the pictures in my hand, so full of liveliness 
and expression, which my father painted, I repeat the 
parable of the talents, or of the prodigal son. 

But the great event of the winter to us was the New 
Year feast. It was then especially that my father poured 
out the fulness of his loving heart. By dint of great pains 



NEW YE A Pi S DAY. 



389 



and personal sacrifices, he contrived the means to enrich us 
all ; and the ever varying way in which he planned the 
celebration of the evening of the 31st of December, or New 
Year's Eve, the part he took in it himself, the joy he 
experienced in our joy, and the few hearty spiritual words 
which he addressed to us the last thing before we knelt 
down together with our mother and him to render thanks 
to our gracious God and heavenly Father, — these are 
things that remain indelibly engraved on the memory of 
us all. 

The next morning after breakfast (when we received the 
presents exhibited to us the evening before), we repaired to 
the chapel. In his New Year sermons he displayed all the 
earnestness of his faith, and all the force of his eloquence. 
Never was he so impressive as when, led thus to place him- 
self and his hearers face to face with the solemnities of 
eternity, he made us realise in a measure the vanity of 
our days, and the nearness of that departure which was to 
be to him, as each year brought it nearer, a blessed entrance 
into the heavenly city. 

After service, we repaired to the home of his parents (my 
mother's had died before 1828). He himself walked first, 
with my mother on his arm, and his children behind. 
He did not omit, in passing, to give little New Year's gifts 
to the custom-house officer, or the soldier at the city-gate, 
accompanied by words of kindly Christian greeting ; while 
more than one passer-by stopped to salute him, and to 
watch his numerous family going by. 

The reader will be astonished, perhaps, to find nothing 
as yet indicative of the discipline a father is invariably 
called upon to exercise over his children. As a rule he 



390 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



avoided reproving and scolding. He had, as it were, a 
deep respect for the individual liberty even of his youngest 
children ; and what he aimed at, from the very first, was 
to furnish their hearts and understandings with sound 
principles, which he had a peculiar aptitude for presenting 
to us under a striking form. " A truth well expressed and 
well understood," he used to say, "is like a nail well 
planted — it is small, but it is iron and solid — many things 
may be hung upon it." His rules for conduct bore rather 
upon the will than the actions, and appealed to the con- 
science in preference to the memory. " If you would know, 
my children, what you ought to do," he used often to say 
to us, " if you would know whether you have acted rightly, 
ask if the Lord Jesus, at your age, and in your place, 
did do, or would have done, the same. Never go where 
He cannot follow you. Shun, in your companionship, your 
amusements, your pursuits, your readings, everything on 
which you cannot heartily implore the divine blessing." 
Most undoubtedly, when I was a boy, I never knew my 
father hesitate either to prohibit or sanction, as occasion 
required. Even then, however, he endeavoured to explain 
to me, in a manner adapted to my youth, the reasons and 
principles by which he was guided. In after years he 
contented himself with reminding me of them. 

As for discipline, in the strict sense of the term, or, 
in other words, punishment, — I can only say that his 
memory is identified to us with nothing but perfect kind- 
ness. 

He only punished very rarely, and always most reluct- 
antly. There was but one fault to which he held himself 
bound to be merciless, and that was the least departure 



GENTLE DISCIPLINE. 



391 



from truthfulness. He was for ever assuring us that a 
lie was of the devil, that liars should not tarry in his 
house, that that was the only crime of which our time of 
life was capable, and that exaggeration and detraction 
were as avenues conducting to it. Our father never struck 
us, in a hasty moment ; as need scarcely be asserted. As 
for corporal punishment, he by no means adopted those 
views which the false egoism of Eomanism has made 
fashionable. The only consideration with him was his 
duty t as a father, to the exclusion of abstruse considera- 
tions of this or that theory about the abstract dignity of 
human nature. Yet, at the same time, as a matter of fact, 
I don't think he ever used the rod, except once or twice, 
in the case of his younger sons; and this reminiscence 
only recalls to them his quiet solemn grief, which caused 
them their greatest sufferings ; while his feelings, on the 
other hand, were never allowed to interfere with his sub- 
mission to what he regarded as the order God Himself 
(Prov. xxiii. 13, 14 ; Heb. xii. 7, 10,) has given to parents 
in the interests of their children. As for back-biting, he 
viewed with displeasure every kind of idle discussion of a 
neighbour. He well knew that a proper name was so 
called, because it was the proper or private possession of 
him who owned it, and that no one has any right to take 
liberties with it. At table, where he delighted to hear us 
talk, he watched the conversation, and directed it always 
himself, with perfect tact, to cheerful or instructive subjects; 
introducing, as occasion offered, serious and heartfelt words. 
ISTor did he ever forget to render thanks with all of us, 
standing up with his hat in his hand, before each meal. 
Such are my early recollections of my father. They 



392 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



close in 1835, when I left for the first time my paternal 
home, and the garden within whose quiet enclosure my 
whole previous life had been passed. 

I was then fourteen years old, and my father took me 
to Wiirtemberg to learn German. We stopped at Schaff- 
hausen, where he preached ; and there I saw him for the 
first time receive from the clergy of an official church, 
testimonies of attachment and respect. At Stuttgardt, 
where he visited those who twelve years before had sent 
him the first proofs of sympathy he had received from 
abroad, he was given the address of Albert Knapp, with 
whom I was to remain some time. Arrived at the little 
town where he lived, my father ascertained that the castle, 
visible from the iron window, was inhabited by that very 
princess who in 1819 had attended with her daughters the 
meetings at the Pre 1'Eveque. Sending in his card, he was 
welcomed with the utmost cordiality and respect by that 
noble Christian lady ; and the kindness his son experienced 
afterwards, for his sake, at her hands, remain among the 
most cherished remembrances of his early youth. On his 
return, my father was requested to preach in the Eeformed 
Church of Stuttgardt. The commencement of his sermon 
produced a marked impression ; but a Lutheran congrega- 
tion could not fail to be irritated when he closed with his 
personal views on the election of grace. The result was 
that, in spite of the generally expressed desire to hear him 
again, no further offer of the pulpit was made. He had 
left the place, however, when it became known in the 
town that a decision on the point had been arrived at. 

In August 1837 he saw, for the first and last time, and 
only for one week, his entire family reassembled round his 



COMING SORROW. 



393 



table. At our last meal each of us received five francs 
from him, with which to purchase some remembrance of 
that family gathering. At my side, as I write, I see the 
paper weight I purchased at the time; but what I see 
even more clearly is the look of radiant pleasure with 
which, on that last day, our dear father arranged the 
twelve pieces of silver on the table. 

It was not without great difficulty that one of my 
brothers had been enabled to join us. This brings me to 
speak of the only occasion for mourning which my father 
ever experienced in his family circle. Moreover, the 
death to which I refer, with the long years of pain and 
anxiety which preceded it, forms a marked epoch in our 
domestic history. It closes, with the majority of us, the 
sunshiny days of our childhood. It was the first time the 
shadow of death had crossed my father's path, — up to that 
period so clothed with life and brightness. 

My brother Jocelyn (who was called after his godfather, 
Lord Eoden, one of my father's oldest and best friends), 
began, when he was seven years old, and probably in con- 
sequence of a severe fall which he had at that time, to 
betray the first symptoms of a terrible nervous disease. 
As the attacks only occurred in the night, one of his 
brothers, with the sanction of the medical attendant, suc- 
ceeded in concealing their gravity from his parents for 
about two years. Gradually, however, the disease 
assumed such a form that it became absolutely necessary 
to tell them the truth, and we soon began to lose all hope 
of a cure being effected. My dear mother speedily adopted 
this sorrowful view, but my father thought otherwise. 
Such an opinion seemed to him a want of faith; and 



394 



LIFE OF CAESAR MILAN. 



whilst lie encountered the malady with the energy and 
perseverance of his character, he constantly reminded us 
of God's promise to hear prayer. He did not know at the 
time that the years that lay before him were to be sent, 
not to furnish a new triumph to believing assurance, but 
to teach him the long and painful lesson of sacrifice and 
silent submission. 

After three years' study abroad, I had to return home. 
I found my father greatly changed. His expression was 
wearied and anxious. Before deciding on allotting a room 
in the garden for my poor brother and the watcher, who 
soon remained permanently with him, he had had him in 
a little room which opened into his own. My father and 
I were at that time the sole occupants of the top story of 
the house. 

Let me mention one of the most vividly remembered 
scenes of that distressing time. One night, aroused by a 
cry from my sick brother, I sprang out of bed and left my 
room. A ray of light fell across the floor of the corridor, 
through the half-opened door of the room where he was 
lying. Entering, I saw my father in his dressing-gown, 
his candle at his side, on his knees by the bed on which 
my poor brother was writhing in the last struggles of one 
of his attacks. With head bent, and gaze fixed on the con- 
vulsed features of his unhappy child, he appeared to be 
uttering, in a low voice, a prayer of anguish, and through 
the flowing locks of his now white hair I saw the silent 
tears that his rending heart sent forth, trickling down his 
emaciated face. I retreated without his seeing me. From 
that time, it was not without awe that I watched, as from 
a distance, the struggle to which his powerful nature was 



A MOTHERS RECORD. 



395 



a prey. I saw him wrestling with the angel God had sent 
to meet him in his way. I felt that, as with the patriarch 
of old, so with him ; the struggle was to be in solitude, the 
conflict in the dark ; and that if he was to come forth vic- 
torious, it would be at the cost of wounds and scars. 
When the day arrived on which (after years of torture so 
inconceivable that, towards the last, none but my mother 
and myself were permitted access to the sick-room) the 
hour of deliverance sounded, it left him stricken into 
silence. 

As for the poor invalid, — while each day the thought of 
his terrible pain settled down upon us like a deepening 
cloud,— while those who saw him (including even the doctors 
themselves) were overpowered at the spectacle of his inde- 
scribable sufferings, — he himself, though at first he seemed 
as if he could not accept his lot, began suddenly to display 
a sweetness and resignation so angelic as to strike the 
very strangers who came to visit him, and to be edified by 
witnessing his submission. 

I have at my side a few pages written by my mother at 
the instigation of M. Gaussen, and recording what she had 
seen during her poor boy's weary years of suffering. I 
cannot quote them entirely, but I may be permitted to 
insert a few extracts. Apart from the interest attaching 
to the incidents they record, they will serve to give an 
idea of the experience my parents were called upon to 
undergo, as well as to reveal, in a measure, the character 
of her whose gentle, lowly piety, together with her devo- 
tion and courage in every extremity, have ever been at the 
source of my father's domestic peace and happiness. 

After a few detailed accounts of terrible episodes in that 



396 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



long illness, and various incidents noticed at different 
times, she writes thus (I give the passage curtailed), a few 
days after Jocelyn's death : — 

" While his life wore away in terrible . anguish, I saw 
him grow in holiness and submission to God. Daily, with 
three or four exceptions, I passed four or five hours at his 
bedside, in the most precious and sacred communion. 
While I witnessed his anguish, I was also the depositary 
of his feelings ; and I traced in them, clearly reflected, the 
blessed victorious work of the Holy Spirit of God. 

" One clay, when he was worse than usual, I read to him 
several times the consolatory descriptions and promises of 
the 21st and 22 d chapters of the Eevelation. When I 
had finished, he said to me, with the sweetest expression, 
f How thankful I shall be to be there !' Whether, owing 
to the circumstance that his distressing malady had too 
greatly exhausted him to admit of his following an argu- 
ment, or because a silent awe held me back from in- 
truding on the celestial teaching which he was receiving, 
under my very eyes, from the Holy Spirit of God, I 
explained the Word to him very sparingly. Listening 
rather myself for what God would teach him, I contented 
myself with offering, from time to time, any explanation 
he might apply for. But I prayed with him ; nor did I 
ever do so without his countenance assuming afterwards a 
celestial peace and happiness, of which, indeed, he testified 
in the most touching manner. 

" One striking feature in his character was his holy fear 
of God, and reverence for His will. One day I was 
repeating a verse from the Psalms (Ps. xL 1 7), ' As for me 
I am poor and needy, but the Lord careth for me : thou 



" MY EXPECTATION IS FROM HIM." 397 



art my helper and deliverer ; 0 Lord, make no long tarry- 
ing.' He said, ' Mamma, I love that verse ; all but the 
last bit. It looks like a murmur against God. He never 
" tarries " in my case.' Alas ! how far my own heart was 
removed from this submission, as I marked the long delay 
in succouring my darling. 

" While I watched him lying day after day and week 
after week on his bed of suffering, cut off from all that 
brightens life, he would say to me, from time to time, 
'Dear mother, how the time flies on; how short it is!' 
and then he would add, ' How good God is to me ! He 
graciously dwells with me in my heart. I feel Him ever 
at hand, dear mother, and I seem as if I could speak to 
Him just as I am speaking to you.' 

" On his countenance, the faithful index of his soul, I 
never saw a shadow of trouble or distress except on 
account of sin ; as, for instance, when he prayed to be 
resigned under his sufferings, or had become acquainted 
with some fault committed around him. 

" One day, during his last week on earth, when he could 
scarcely speak without great difficulty, he said to me, 
' Ah, mother, how I long to be patient and submissive to 
my God;' and on my assuring him that he was, and that 
he might give thanks for this, he replied, ' Yes, mother, I 
can; for it is not I that am submissive, but His power 
working in me.' 

" Ten or twelve days before his departure, he said to me, 
with deep feeling, ' Ah, mother, you do not know what I 
have seen !' ' What have you seen, darling V ' Oh, I have 
seen and heard things I cannot describe; they were so 
glorious ! Oh I have been so happy ! Dear mother, words 



398 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



could not utter what I have witnessed. I could not, 
I must not, tell you. Oh what glory ! and it lasted 
so long !' I saw at once that the Good Shepherd, — to 
strengthen him, and give him courage for the endurance of 
his sufferings which were increasing daily, — had revealed 
to him, by the Holy Spirit, during the watches of the 
night (it was in the early morning), the glories on which 
he was so soon to enter. 

" His natural character had been singularly upright, but 
inclined to pride, and sometimes to unkindness to his 
inferiors ; but the grace of Christ made him the humblest 
of little children. During the last seventeen months of 
his illness, in which I watched him all the day, I never 
saw him, but on two or three occasions, in the least degree, 
exacting. Meanwhile, he never murmured ; I never heard 
a complaint from him, even in his paroxysms of suffering ; 
or even a simple groan. He always begged my pardon for 
cries unconsciously uttered during his attacks. He never 
spoke of his sufferings, except to bless the Lord for having 
sent them to him, and thus led him to know and serve 
Him. 

" Once he said to me, ' I do not envy my brothers and 
sisters, I assure you ; they are still in the midst of the 
world, with its temptations and vanities : while I am taken 
away from it by my Saviour's power. Ah, I am happier 
than they all.' 

" The passages of Scripture, which sustained him most 
abundantly, were, ' I have chosen Thee in the furnace of 
affliction ' He learned obedience by the things which 
he suffered ;' ' Out of much tribulation we enter the king- 
dom of God/ When I repeated to him the words of the 



RESURGAM. 



399 



Lord Jesus, ' Father, not my will, but Thine be done;' he 
added, ' Amen !' 

" One last grace, which beautified this Christian spirit, 
was extreme humility. Once, when I emphatically com- 
mended him, he said to me, with striking solemnity, 
* Mother, don't flatter me ! ' I never thought of doing so. 
Alas, I could never convey an idea of his expression ; * the 
sweet sound of his voice ; and the ineffable celestial peace 
which marked the least of his actions, and hallowed all his 
wishes ! His holy, blessed memory will follow me all 
my life. 

" Once, when in an outburst of affection I lavished on 
him the tenderest epithets, such as ' my darling,' ' my de- 
light,' 1 my comfort and joy,' he said, ' Dear mother, you 
tempt me ; don't say all that to me.' ' I may call you my 
darling, then, mayn't I ? ' His sweet smile said ' yes.' " 

In January 1846, after nine years' suffering, the most 
terrible symptoms of his disease increased in intensity. 
On the 26th of that month, I spent almost the whole night 
at his bedside with my father. We had scarcely left him, 
on his becoming to all appearance a little more composed, 
when the message came that he had passed away to his 
everlasting rest. 

The following year, after witnessing in a bloody revolu- 
tion the end of the Geneva of my earliest recollections, I 
went abroad again. From that time, for many years, I was 
only at home on a visit. A few words, therefore, with re- 

* My brother Jocelyn had a singularly beautiful expression. My father 
referred to it when, in the poem entitled, " .A. Father at the Grave of his 
Boy," he wrote that verse — 

" How sweet it was to see 
Thy soul look through thine eyes ! " 



400 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



ference to my father's attitude towards me in my early 
manhood, will be appropriate at this point. 

ISTo one felt more than he did that the isolation into 
which he had been brought, together with his family, in 
Geneva, was calculated to increase the embarrassments 
which every youth must expect to encounter at the com- 
mencement of his career. Hence he effectually guarded 
himself, by explicit and numerous rules, from interposing 
any further difficulty in our way, shut out as we already 
were from the world in which we lived as much by the 
principles and customs of his household as by the stigma 
which attached to our name. 

Ever ready to listen to us and advise with us when we 
referred to him, he never took the initiative. It was not 
by orders, it was by a simple setting forth of principles and 
of faith, above all, by the unremitting influence of his 
whole life, that he most powerfully ruled us. It is true 
that, on the one hand, the discipline of his house was abso- 
lute ; while, on the other, his influence was such that it 
would have been impossible for any one to have felt 
themselves perfectly independent under his eye. But 
nothing of this resulted from an avowed purpose or pre- 
meditated calculation. Above all, there was nothing to 
remind one, even remotely, of that direct personal authority 
which, once irrevocably asserted, leaves a son no choice, 
except between hypocrisy and revolt. 

To touch only on my own case : I shall content myself 
with observing here that, until I came to mature years, my 
father's will was in my eyes the very personification of the 
will of God Himself. At the same time, I hasten to add 
that, so far from seeking to inspire me with this view, he 



RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCHES. 



401 



would have been staggered had he become aware of the 
earnestness with which I adopted it. 

Having lost his father in 1840, and received, in 1844, 
news of the death of his brother (who had lived most of 
his life abroad), he closed his mother's eyes at Vandceuvres 
in 1848. That year commences the evening of his life. 
Not only was he left alone from that time, as regards all 
who had surrounded his childhood, but never was he so 
painfully conscious of his isolation in Geneva. 

Indeed, it was then that he felt himself compelled to 
abandon the idea of reunion with his seceding brethren. 
I will arrest the record of my personal recollections (to 
which I shall have an opportunity of recurring when I 
reach that part of my subject), for the purpose of supplying 
a few details in connection with his last intercourse, in 
public life, with Free Churches abroad and in Geneva itself, 
as well as with the National Church of his country. As I 
was away from home the greater part of the time to which 
I am now referring, I shall be careful to indicate the 
sources from which my information has been derived. 



Section 2. — His Final Relations with the Churches. 

If there be one thing supremely worthy to attract the 

believer's thought, it is the way in which faith invariably 

succeeds, despite the errors and weaknesses of earth, in 

maintaining its eternal right in the hearts of all those in 

whom its empire has been thoroughly established. The 

spectacle of every really Christian life should lead us to 

appreciate the victorious development of the spiritual 

man, — the man born from above. And it is only in propor- 

2 c 



402 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



tion as such is the case with us that we can regard 
ourselves as having arrived at a proper estimate of such 
a life. 

This thought, frequently present to me in the course of 
my narrative, comes up with new force now that I have to 
describe the position which my father uniformly assumed 
in reference to all that affected the form and outward 
discipline of the churches. 

It has been already observed that in his case the mani- 
festation of the faith of the heart presented, from the very 
first, two aspects. It revealed itself especially in the form 
of doctrine. It was in opposing the setting forth of a 
positive dogma, or of negative dogmatism which it was 
sought to impose on his preaching, that he testified, at the 
first, his faith in the free salvation of God, and in the 
Saviour of his soul. It was this same faith, moreover, in 
the reality of the celestial gift, and consequently in the 
privileges and duties resulting from it to true believers, 
which led him subsequently to unite with his brethren in 
a separate Church, when the ecclesiastical institution to 
which he belonged, had prohibited him from freely ex- 
pressing his views. Thus his separation from the Esta- 
blishment was, in his eyes, an essentially religious act — was, 
in fact, so far as he was concerned, the simple indispen- 
sable testimony of the faith of his heart. 

Side by side with this, however, new elements afterwards 
appeared. A singularly pertinacious opposition soon com- 
pelled him to affirm, with increasing precision, the special 
form which he gave to his protest, and over and over 
again to vindicate its soundness. Of course, in doing this 
he was liable to the danger of forgetting for his own part, — 



HIS DANGER AND DEFENCE. 403 



while he concealed this from his hearers, — the supreme 
importance of that heavenly faith which alone gave to his 
dogmatical and ecclesiastical position its religions charac- 
ter. He was in peril of assigning, whether to dogma 
considered as such, or to matters external in ecclesiastical 
economy, that place which belongs only to living faith, to 
that reality of the heavenly life which will alone remain 
after the imperfect manifestation with which we, in this 
world, have invested it, either in our creeds or forms, shall 
have disappeared for ever. 

To this danger my father would certainly have suc- 
cumbed, had he been like other men — I mean, had he not 
been one essentially different from and superior to others, 
a true Christian. 

On the other hand, if nothing in his life had betrayed 
the presence of this danger, if nothing had occurred to 
testify to weakness and inexperience, he would not have 
been like other believers — in other words, he would have 
been no longer one of those subject to error — called by us 
not so much saints, as Christians. 

It was that living faith — that eternal imperishable prin- 
ciple — implanted by the sovereign power of the Holy 
Ghost ; that everlasting life, so thoroughly established 
within him — that secured him alike from narrowness of 
spirit, no better than lifeless dogmatism, and from sterility 
of soul which would have left him a fruitless sectarian. 
To prove the first of these two points it will suffice to 
appeal to the devoted energetic charity of his whole life ; 
while as for the second, the facts to which we are now to 
call attention will amply establish it. 

The reader will remember the position my father as- 



404 



LIFE OF CJE8AB MALAX. 



sumed before 1830, with reference to the pretensions 
which, because they admitted the divine institution of the 
visible Church, made it necessary to find the model of that 
Church, not so much in the virtues of the apostles, as in 
their writings ; and this, with the avowed object of realis- 
ing, in a visible form, the mystic union of true believers. 
It will not have been forgotten with what precision and 
clearness he had already expressed the right possessed by 
each Church of believers to affirm openly its special and 
distinctive individuality. What he had to undergo in this 
matter, so far from modifying, served only to strengthen 
convictions which in him were, after all, nothing but the 
natural result of innate superiority of thought and breadth 
of sentiments. 

In short, in my father's judgment, the Church, as the 
visible Church, had but one absolute character with which 
ever}~thing in it was required to consist — namely, that of 
an assembly of believers, (Matt. xvi. 16-18.) Every other 
characteristic which might chance to invest it, he regarded 
simply as an accessory; as an earthly and fugitive thing ; to 
which it would consequently be wrong to attach more 
than a relative importance. From this, it will appear that 
the ecclesiastical institution, in its historical form, had no 
importance in his eyes, except in so far as he saw in it 
the manifestation of that life produced in believers by God 
Himself, through the instrumentality of their faith in His 
Word. On the other hand, in thus considering the 
Church in the world solely from this absolute, ideal, 
eternal point of view, he confounded its origin entirely 
with that of the spiritual life of the faithful, of which 
it was in his eyes merely a manifestation. At the same 



ECCLESIASTICAL VIEWS. 



405 



time (and this brings us to the point which, as we have 
already seen, specially characterised his religions thought), 
inasmuch as he never recognised faith apart from the 
intelligible expression of it by the individual believer, the 
only feature to which he attached any decisive importance 
in his judgment of any Church, was the doctrine it be- 
lieved, professed, and taught. 

Everything else was in his eyes entirely human ; freely 
submitted to private judgment ; the importance of which 
must vanish before the question of the presence or absence 
of pure evangelical doctrine. Even those phases of the 
historical life of Churches which appear, from time to 
time, to exercise a direct influence on the development of 
their religious life, even their interior organisation or their 
attitude towards the civil power, were unimportant in his 
eyes, except in so far as he saw involved the eternal in- 
terests of the ideal, invisible, mystical Church constituted 
within them, under the headship of the divine Saviour, by 
faithful souls. Considered in themselves, these circum- 
stances might serve to originate, in our Christian expe- 
rience, decisions more or less precise, but no matter of 
faith was involved in them, nothing which might claim to 
have been dictated by a superior and infallible authority. 

Such, in brief, was the conviction at the bottom of the 
opinions he expressed on ecclesiastical matters ; while it 
also determined his position with regard to the different 
Churches. In this he was distinguished from the earlier 
seceders before 1830, and this it was that he continued 
to set forth from that time with increasing perspicuity in 
his writings; and, more especially, in his conduct. 

And first, in his writings. It will be understood, after 



406 LIFE OF CJESAB MA LAN. 



what has just been said, how it was that he published so 
sparingly on the subject of the visible Church, its consti- 
tution, and historical rights. I find little more than a 
speech on this subject, in 1845, in a meeting assembled 
at Lausanne, to maintain the essential independence of the 
Church, with regard to the civil power. Even then he 
justifies the part he took in the demonstration, solely on 
his abstract idea of the mystic Church. What he aims at 
upholding supremely is the spiritual liberty of the true 
believer, whose faith he defines by what he deems the 
only scriptural doctrine, the doctrine of free salvation, 
resulting directly from the initiatory action of the sove- 
reignty of God in J esus Christ. As for whatever, in the 
body ecclesiastical, has no immediate reference to this re- 
ligious reality, or to its possession and profession ; as for 
the historical rights of the Church, considered by them- 
selves, he does not even pause to advert to them. 

These principles which had already withheld him, be- 
fore 1830, from sacrificing to mere external unity what he 
regarded as faithfulness to his message, we subsequently 
discover in the position he assumed towards various 
foreign Churches, as well as in Geneva itself; and that, as 
much with reference to the old National Church of his 
country, as to the evangelical communion of which he 
witnessed the origin in 1849. 

And it showed itself especially after his visit to Scot- 
land in 1843. While confining himself strictly to testify- 
ing his sympathy with the true and faithful, without 
distinction of sect, he disappointed the hopes of those of 
his friends who had calculated on seeing him take part 
openly with the Free Church, the rise of which had 



FREE CHURCHES. 



407 



produced so great a sensation. I append a few extracts 
from a pamphlet he felt called upon to publish on the 
occasion.* 

After setting forth (in a preface addressed to the friend 
who had asked him to write the tract in question), the 
gratitude with which the brethren in Geneva had been 
filled on hearing of what the Lord had just done for His 
Church in Scotland, and their admiration at seeing so 
many ministers of the Saviour resolving unanimously to 
part with so much of what the world values, rather than 
permit the invasion of what they esteemed the rights of 
the Lord Jesus, — -after adding that, as far as he was con- 
cerned, it had been his wish to convey to the Free 
Church, first by letter and then in person, a testimony of 
sympathy and respect from his little congregation, — he re- 
turns thanks to God that a great number of true servants 
of Christ had, nevertheless, held it to be their duty to 
remain in the Establishment, and so maintain in it both 
the preaching of the truth and those institutions which 
are in harmony with the gospel, and the glory of Jesus 
Christ. 

At that very time, " while he sympathised with a Church 
which refused to submit to the control of the decisions 
which the civil power felt called upon to make in matters 
of spiritual economy," he foresaw that the disruption, 
" distressing though it appeared in the eyes of the Na- 
tional Church, was destined to be, in the hands of God, 
a means of rekindling the zeal of many, and of spreading 
abroad the Word of Life in quarters where it had not 
hitherto been preached." 

* « A Visit to Scotland in 1843." 



408 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



At the same time he reminds his friend " that excite- 
ment, together with political or material interests, might 
very possibly have influenced more than one mind, and have 
even been at the bottom, in more than one instance, of the 
ready cession of temporalities." Eeferring to " the days 
when the Lord Jesus alone, and without visible gain, 
would present nothing but the cross to His faithful ones," 
he adjures his brethren of the Tree Church " to keep strict 
watch over the purity of their doctrine. " 

"My visit to your country," he says, in conclusion, 
" short though it has been, has been full of solace to my 
own soul. I have enjoyed the society of many ministers 
of Christ belonging to both Established and Free Churches. 
I have actually discovered that there is no division in 
Christ, and that it is the same Spirit Who is the Teacher 
and Comforter of all the servants of the same Saviour. If 
here and there I have witnessed passing exhibitions of a 
tendency to judge, I have nevertheless observed uniformly 
the triumph of charity over mere personal satisfaction, and 
the rights of Christ taking precedence over those of any 
Church or any special discipline." 

He then describes the imposing scene, of which he had 
been an eye-witness, at Glasgow, where he had been in- 
vited to be present at the two first sessions of the General 
Assembly of the Free Church. 

In the subsequent pages he gives an analysis of his 
sermons delivered at the time in different churches * 

" My desire," he says, in giving an account of his first 

* At Aberdeen, in the Free Church ; at Edinburgh, in Dr Candlish's 
pulpit ; at the " Tabernacle " of J. Haldane, and elsewhere. He preached 
also in French, in St Luke's Church. 



HEARERS AND DOERS. 



409 



sermon, preached in a Free Church, " was not so much 
to speak of the power which our Lord possesses, as King 
of His Church, but of the right which he has to the faith 
and obedience of us all." Eecalling the days of the Swiss 
revival, " Numbers," he says, " were animated at that 
time by carnal motives. While raising the cry, 1 Liberty S 
Separation ! A Free Church ! ' they knew nothing either of 
that conversion which can alone really emancipate, or of 
that still small voice of the Spirit which is the teaching of 
the Lord ; and hence they were soon offended. Trust not 
then in human wisdom or strength ; do not be so bigoted 
as to suppose that, because such and such ministers of 
Christ do not go along with us, they are not serving Him. 
Be not hasty to judge or to condemn. It is your charity 
which will establish before God the proof of your sincerity, 
and of the purity of your motives." 

" It may happen (it happens frequently), that we deceive 
ourselves as to our intentions ; and, while our hearts are 
unrenewed, confess the gospel, or utter words of truth and 
soberness in mere compliance with the demands of our 
reason. But, to follow the example of Christ, to cling to 
His side in the presence of the world, carrying His cross 
and His reproach, — here, Christian brethren, is a thing 
in which there can be no deception. Obedience brings us 
into contact with what alone is real ; and our submission 
is the evidence of the truth of our devotion." 

In another sermon I find these words : " If mysticism, if 
a certain religious sentimentality, is the error to which 
Christians are exposed in Germany, is it not true that 
pride of understanding and an attempt to seek to fathom 
God and His mysteries, threaten those in Scotland ? " 



410 



LIFE OF CAESAE MALAN. 



These extracts suffice to show the ground which my 
father occupied, and how little that veteran confessor 
allowed himself to be affected in his testimony to eternal 
salvation by the surrounding excitement of the move- 
ment. 

Decision and absolute clearness on the doctrine of con- 
version, as well as of the necessity of a new life in the 
soul; breadth and toleration with reference to those 
transient forms which the outward action of that life 
might chance to assume — such were his characteristics ; 
whilst, at the same time, he furnished abundant evidence 
of an ever accessible heart, of an ever lively and ardent 
enthusiasm with regard to whatever event seemed a har- 
binger of better days for the diffusion of the heavenly mes- 
sage, and for the eternal interests of the spiritual king- 
dom of Jesus Christ. 

But if this catholicity of spirit admitted of his thus 
stretching out his hand as a Christian to all his brethren, 
wherever he might meet them, it had its irremoveable 
limits in what he termed the personal and special ministry 
entrusted to him, as he believed, in his capacity as an 
officer in the Church, and a preacher. 

Already, before 1830, we saw that it was not merely the 
ecclesiastical narrowness of the separatists, with whom he 
had had to deal, that had prevented him from associating 
his labours with theirs. This decision of his was equally 
due to the importance he attached to what constituted, in 
his eyes, " purity of doctrine." 

It was this last motive which chiefly prevented him, 
in 1849, from joining himself and his church with the 
•Free Church, set up at that time in Geneva, by the fusion 



A STRUGGLE. 



411 



of the two nonconforming bodies, the Oratory and the 
Pelisserie (originally the Church of the Bourg de Four). 

My father had much to endure on that occasion. Not 
only had he been compelled to endure the unjust accusa- 
tions his conduct called forth ; not only did he hear men 
whom he thoroughly honoured and loved, attributing his 
decision to a proud and bigoted spirit ; but, to speak only 
with reference to himself, it cost him much to abandon 
a union which had been the dream of his whole life. jSTor 
did he do it except from a feeling of duty. I myself was 
abroad at the time, and my father haying written to ask 
me what I thought about the matter, I set before him 
all the reasons which led me strongly to desire that 
he should reunite, as a minister in the Church, with 
his brethren in Geneva. When I found that his mind was 
by no means made up in the same direction, I gathered at 
once that he had made a most painful sacrifice at the bid- 
ding of conscientious scruples. Afterwards, when I had 
had an opportunity of speaking to him on the subject, I 
not only found that I had judged him rightly ; but I was 
brought to see, moreover, why it had pleased God to lead him 
thus to act. As for him, though suffering daily from the 
isolation which, from that time more than ever, characterised 
his position in the limited religious world of Geneva, he 
never appeared to me to harbour, even for a single moment, 
a thought of regret at the decision to which he had 
come. 

I append a letter which he wrote on that occasion to one 
of my elder sisters. I give it almost entire, as it will save 
me from going any further into detail on this episode in 
his life. 



412 



LIFE OF CJESAFi MA LAN. 



" Geneva, Feb. Uth, 1849. 

" You ask me for the motives which have hitherto pre- 
vented me from adhering to the plan of the new Church, 
and I know no other than the fear I have lest, by joining 
this fusion, I should seem to sanction what I consider 
error. Here is my entire judgment in the matter. 

" It has been customary to distinguish, in the truths of 
the gospel, between those indispensable to salvation, and 
therefore described as essential, and those which scarcely 
appear to have a direct bearing upon it, and which are 
therefore called secondary. But, among these, I think 
that a minister of the gospel, charged with guarding the 
deposit, and even with teaching the observance of ' the 
least commandments,' (Tim. vi. 20; Matt. v. 10), cannot 
draw an absolute line, and say, of such or such a point, 
that it ought to be waived^seeing that this point is pre- 
cisely one which, some time or other, he may have to con- 
tend for with the utmost vigour. Therefore, if I feel my 
heart overflowing with toleration for those of my brethren, 
Baptists or Chiliasts,* or whatever else they may be, and 
if I can join in prayer and holy communion with them, 
this by no means involves acquiescence in their errors. 
Such being my conviction, I can easily contract a union 
with different Churches of believers, and so maintain with 
them hearty and active relations through mutual faith in 
the Saviour, and mutual love. But a fusion I could not 
form ; in other words, a confusion, if I saw in them the 
errors I have pointed out, or some other doctrine which 
might appear to me to be opposed to the divine truth and 

* These two tendencies were numerously represented among the elements 
which composed the new Church. 



LETTER TO HIS DAUGHTER. 



413 



government. I should be afraid, in thus fusing the minis- 
try of the unadulterated word with error, on the one 
hand, of being faithless to my trust as a minister ; on the 
other, of furnishing a support, a seeming sanction, to that 
error. 

" Certainly if, in the arrangement just carried out, I 
could have detected simple jealousy for the truth, I would 
have hastened to subscribe to it. I, who, as you know 
and have seen, for more than twenty-five years, have never 
had in view any other ecclesiasical scheme than the union 
of the different communions in one vast Presbyterian 
Church, in which, the flocks remaining distinct, should 
keep their individual liberty, their special idiosyncrasies, 
especially in the matter of Church government." 

After stating how advantageous this fusion would have 
been to him in his sphere of action, and even as regarded 
his social position in the religious world of Geneva, 
" What of all that," he exclaims, " when compared with 
the fidelity I owe to what I deem my duty as a minister 
of Christ ; what of temporal advantages, and the approval 
of my brethren, when purchased at the cost of my peace 
of conscience as a servant in the presence of his master ; 
what appertains to me is too precarious to be, for a 
moment, considered, and, in fact, I never even thought of 
it. No motive have I had, known to myself at least, 
springing either from wounded self-love, or desjnsed dignity. 
Such a feeling I never entertained. No, my dear child, I 
have been actuated simply in the way I have explained, 
and if God were to show me that I have been mistaken in 
that (a thing which I cannot imagine), He would give me 
a different view of my duty from that which I have desired 



414 



LIFE OF CM8AB MALAN. 



to cherish. I am His servant, and I wish to do only what 
the Lord commands. 

" You can enter into all my sufferings, of every kind ; 
from without and from within. My flock has almost 
entirely deserted me, and, from all sides, I experience 
censure and reproach. But what can I do to arrest these 
evils, since I cannot swerve in anything from what I 
believe to be the right of God." 

Five years after that letter was written, in 1854, he 
made a spontaneous overture to be admitted into the 
Evangelical Church, preserving, at the same time, his 
character of minister, and of special pastor over those who 
still followed him. But that idea of a confederation of free 
elements, in which each was to preserve its own individu- 
ality, an idea which he had always entertained, and which 
he delighted to express by the words, "fusion, confusion, 
union, communion" was no better understood then than it 
had been in 1849. The strong desire was entertained 
to constitute a body, in the presence of the National 
Church, which was to be influential by the unity of its 
career and the numbers of its adherents. With this 
object in view, it was clearly inexpedient to take in one 
so independent in character as my father, while regret 
could scarcely be felt at the absence of the few people 
who still adhered to him. 

It will be evident from all this that the isolated position 
which he occupied as regards the other Churches of the 
revival, was not the result of what had been a mere 
personal feeling with him, but had been dictated by his 
conscientious view of a precise duty. This is further 
evident from the manner in which, in 1855, he defined 



POSITION OF HIS CHURCH. 415 



publicly the position occupied by bis little Church with 
reference to the National Church of Geneva, as well as 
from the nature of his action towards the latter com- 
munion at the time of which we are now speaking. 

On the occasion of a declaration which emanated from 
the Grand* Council in 1855, "that the only reason which 
dissenting Churches had for their existence was their mere 
negative opposition to the National Church," he took up 
the subject in a tract, entitled " The Church of Testimony 
in its relations, as regards doctrine and discipline, with the 
ancient Church of Geneva." 

Having briefly referred to the origin of his church, he 
lays it down that the sole reason for its existence is 
founded in the preaching of the orthodox doctrine of the 
Eeformed Churches, and the maintenance of their ancient 
discipline. So far from being, in consequence, opposed to 
the true National Church of Geneva, it aspired the rather, 
in its limited sphere, solely to revive the old doctrines and 
old life of that Church. He then concludes his exposition 
of the doctrine and discipline of his Church, by saying, 
"that if they were actually dissenters, they were not 
separatists." 

But it was not merely by the abstract declaration of his 
ecclesiastical principles that he manifested towards the 
National Establishment such a breadth and superiority of 
view, as to draw down upon him, from many of his 
brethren, the charge of ecclesiastical indifference. It is 
all the more important to point out the facts, to which I am 
now referring, since he has been perpetually accused by 
the national party itself, of having been actuated only by 
a feeling of animosity towards the Church from which he 



416 



LIFE OF CJESAR MA LAN. 



had seceeded, and of having done all in his power to injure 
it abroad. There is evidently some misconception here. 
It is not for me to inquire how far the Rational Church 
could be calumniated abroad. What I affirm is, that 
my father never did so, unless, indeed, by the loyal and 
open opposition which he manifested, (whenever he was 
called upon to do so), towards those negative tendencies 
which had obtained among the clergy of that Church, and 
in the name of which they had compelled him to detach 
his labours from theirs. And now for the facts referred 
to. 

It is well known how far the subject of a separation 
between the Church and State had succeeded, about 1842, 
in occupying the attention of all parties. In the Canton 
de Yaud, Yinet had extensively agitated it, and even in 
Geneva it had been the theme of public discussions, on the 
occasion of the elections for the Constituent Assembly in 
1842, as well as in the very bosom of the Assembly itself* 
When the question of the choice of deputies came up, that 
point had figured in the very front of the program m e of 
the different candidates. 

As my father knew that many of his brethren would 
stand aloof, he asked me what I thought of doing ; espe- 
cially with reference to the question of the Church. I 
replied, that whatever might be the opinion required as 
to the theological doctrines professed in the Xational 
Church, that institution did not the less appear to me, at ' 
that crisis, a providential barrier against the rising tide 
of ultra-montanism, and that from that point of view 
it seemed to me to be incumbent on every friend of the 

* See also De Goltz, " Geneve Eeligieuse," p. 340, et seq. 



THE CHAMPION OF THE CHURCH 417 



country, and of liberty to maintain it. My father told me 
that such was his judgment in the matter, and we went 
together to drop our votes into the ballot-box. 

I remember that, as we were returning, we met one of 
the first representatives of the evangelical party in Geneva, 
who, so far from sympathising with our views, expressed 
himself as greatly surprised at the course we had taken, 
assuring us that we were probably the only dissenters who 
had voted in the same way. 

The state of things inaugurated in 1842 having been 
subverted in 1846, the same question came up again in 
1847 in a more urgent manner. Indeed, everything com- 
bined to awaken the gravest fears for the National Church, 
and to strengthen the conviction that the point then to be 
mooted was no mere modification of the relation hitherto 
subsisting between it and the civil power, but involved its 
very existence. It was on this occasion that, in the teeth 
of the aspirations of an evangelical section which appeared 
to hail, in the overthrow of the National Church, the 
advent of a new era, my father issued a three-paged tract, 
entitled, " Eemove not the ancient landmarks which thy 
fathers have placed," (Pro v. xxii. 28.) Commencing by 
quoting the beautiful and resolute address which the 
" company of pastors " had just issued to the grand council, 
setting forth " that they could not die who had with them 
the power which God bestows," he refers to his " Declaration 
of Fidelity to the Church of Geneva," published twenty-six 
years before. " In separating at that time from an unfaithful 
communion," he says, " neither he nor his brethren dreamt 
of opposing that ancient Protestant Church of Geneva, 

which God Himself had planted among them as a barrier 

2 D 



418 LIFE OF CASSAR II ALAN. 



against the encroachments of Romanism." Giving full 
scope to the ardour of his patriotic sentiments, and his 
feelings as " an old Protestant/' he conjures up before him, 
phantom-like, the idea of the final destruction of that 
ancient bulwark of liberty and evangelical truth, known as 
Genevese Protestantism. " Separate Church and State," 
he cries, " if the State is weary of the Union. Give her 
back her symbols and standards if she has been rifled of 
them. Restore to its proud place of honour in her midst 
the teaching of the Word, if she has been reft of her 
dignity ! Do this, and all, — yes, all true Protestants — I 
mean, all Christians — will rejoice ; but have a care not to 
remove the ancient landmarks, and, under a show of liberal- 
ism, to take away from Geneva what alone has rendered 
her liberal, if indeed we are to understand by this word 
what the Bible calls true liberty, — given and maintained by 
truth, the gospel, and the Christian faith." He goes on to 
entreat his fellow-citizens, " instead of meditating the de- 
struction of the Church of Geneva, to strengthen it, on the 
contrary, by reminding it of all that it was, and all it 
ought once again to become." 

This little tract made a considerable impression at the 
time. Not only did it find an echo among a people whose 
patriotism is so easily stirred up, by appealing to the 
memory of their past, but it helped to remove more than 
one prejudice against its author. The majority of his 
contemporaries, in fact, having ceased for many years to 
hold any communication with him, though seeing him 
daily, had accustomed themselves to judge him by hear- 
say, and had mistaken his dogmatic opposition for what 
would have been mere party hostility and sectarian rancour. 



" CLIFFS, RENT ASUNDER; 



419 



For myself, I lay all the more stress on this exhibition of 
what I may best call his ecclesiastical and religions patriot- 
ism, inasmuch as it appeared just after he had experienced 
a fresh proof of the implacable hatred entertained towards 
him in that very Church whose ancient and glorious memo- 
ries he so glowingly recalls. That animosity had, indeed, 
gone so far as to assume the appearance of personal aver- 
sion, and to make its way under the disguise of indirect 
anonymous denunciations. 

Let me refer here to a letter, addressed by one of the 
influential members of the National Church of Geneva to 
one of the first pastors of Holland, immediately after my 
father's missionary tour in that country, in 1842, during 
which, as will be remembered, he was everywhere received 
with respect. That letter, which was circulated through 
the Dutch Churches, aroused deep indignation. It was 
sent at once to my father, who had hitherto regarded its 
author (one of his old school-fellows), as a man on whose 
personal sentiments he could safely rely. He gave him 
the letter himself, imploring him, in the name of truth, 
and of their old relations to each other, to spare him the 
necessity of a reply. His " friend," however, met all his 
entreaties with absolute silence. I remember well his 
return from the interview. Pale, and deeply moved, he 
said to my mother, as he entered the house, " I have lost 
an old friend to-day." It was not till then that he wrote 
to the ecclesiastic in Holland his reply to the dishonour- 
able epistle he had received through his hands. Both 
letters were forthwith published in Holland.* "We 

*' Papers relative to Dr Malan's last visit to Holland. Amsterdam : 
Hoogkamer & Co., 1843. 



420 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



abstain from all comments at this point," so we read 
in a preface to the reader, "leaving the publication of 
the truth in the hands of our great God and Saviour, 
Jesus Christ, the King Eternal, Who knows how to 
avenge all iniquity, and to punish falsehood and calumny, 
whatever be the name or title of their authors." 

It is needless to add that these libellous personalities, 
were it only for their virulence, were powerless to injure 
any but the man who had been capable of uttering 
them. 

As for the manner in which my father resented the 
outrage, I will content myself with saying that I found 
after his death, at the bottom of a cupboard, a packet 
enclosing a few copies of the publication, the title of 
which is given in the note, which had been sent him for 
distribution. It remained in the state in which he had 
received it twenty years before, and I read then for the 
first time the letter of his "friend" in Geneva. He did 
not content himself, however, with estimating such 
attacks at their proper value. While they pained him 
deeply every time they occurred, they never left in him 
the slightest trace of bitterness, either against the persons, 
or parties themselves. We have just had a proof of this ; 
what I am now going to relate will furnish evidence still 
more striking. 

It was in 1853, after his last visit to Scotland, one of 
the principal preachers of the Free Church in Edinburgh 
having refused to allow him to preach in his chapel 
because he would not pledge himself to abstain from 
preaching in Established churches, several other Free 
Church ministers came forward at once and offered him 



THE SCOTCH CHURCH 



421 



tlieir pulpits, so that he realised his wish of being able to 
exercise his ministry in both communions. In a very 
numerous gathering of the National Church, when he was 
asked to say a few words on the state of religion on the 
continent, he delivered an address, a few extracts from 
which I will insert in this place. 

After reminding his hearers that their Church, the 
National Church of Scotland, though originally a daughter 
of the Church of Geneva, had declined to send a de- 
putation to their jubilee, in consequence of the position 
assumed by the latter towards the evangelical revival, he 
assured them that he was delighted to seize the oppor- 
tunity of declaring publicly to the faithful in Scotland — to 
those Christians who had given him such a brotherly 
welcome, at a time when, thirty years ago, he was being 
persecuted by the clergy of the Church of Geneva, and 
compelled to separate himself from that Church — that it 
had pleased God to bring thither again the preaching of 
the pure gospel which, said he, "is now making itself 
heard with more power and clearness than had marked 
the discourses for which he had been suspended." He 
invited them, moreover, to rejoice with him at what 
God Himself had wrought in drawing out their sympathies 
to that ancient Church which their fathers had revered, 
and, above all, in encompassing it with their prayers, that 
it might be upheld in its onward career. 

This explicit address, supported by numerous facts, pro- 
duced a great sensation in Scotland. A desire was ex- 
pressed in many quarters that the wishes my father had 
thus publicly uttered might soon be realised, and friendly 
relations re-established between the national Churches of 



422 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



Scotland and Geneva. The sndden feeling, however, was 
arrested as soon as started, by letters written from Geneva, 
and published in the organ of the Free Church in Edin- 
burgh — letters which tended to destroy the impression 
produced by the testimony just given. 

The cause was still there. "When on a visit to Edinburgh 
three years afterwards, I happened to hear the facts I have 
just mentioned. I went immediately to the Moderator of 
the General Assembly, who, after having heard what I had 
to say, encouraged me to resume the good work which my 
father had commenced. The Moderator of the Company 
of Pastors in Geneva, Pastor Duby, having furnished me, 
at my request, with some specific details as to the evan- 
gelical preaching in the Church over which he presided, I 
handed over the papers, accompanied by a statement in my 
handwriting, to a relative, Sheriff Arkley, lay deputy to 
the General Assembly. A letter addressed by him to the 
President of the Committee, intrusted with the communi- 
cations with Foreign Churches, was read, in May 1857, in 
the Assembly itself. Thereupon that body charged the 
Committee to write to the National Church of Geneva in 
the spirit of the conclusions adopted by Mr Arkley, which 
were based again on the public testimony given by my 
father in 1853. The next year these letters were sent to 
the President of the Consistory of Geneva, and from that 
time there was no further obstacle to the existence of 
friendly relations between the two Churches. Thus, my 
father had the satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of 
his efforts, which he had commenced with such thorough 
Christian heartiness. Facts like these are ample testimony 



RESTORATION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT 423 



to the emptiness of the accusations referred to above, and 
for that reason they are quoted here* 

It was not for him to decide whether he should re- 
enter the Church of Geneva, not, indeed, as a pastor, 
which he never contemplated, and which his principles, 
with reference to Church discipline, would have absolutely 
prohibited, but to exercise his ministry as a preacher of the 
gospel. I allude here not merely to the protests which he 
never ceased to make against the inhibition with which the 
established clergy had visited him, but to the circum- 
stances which occurred at the close of his life in 1859 and 
1861, and with which I will conclude my account of his 
ecclesiastical relations. 

The period was 1859. For a long time the friends my 
father had acquired among the national clergy of Geneva 
had arrived at the conclusion that there was no further 
obstacle in the way of his realising a wish he had always 
cherished of preaching once more, as minister of the gospel, 
in those pulpits which had only been closed to him by the 
"Eeglement'' of May 1817, which " Eeglement," as a 
matter of fact, after becoming practically obsolete, had been 
repudiated by the Church itself on the occasion of the 
Jubilee in 1835.+ Whilst some desired to see this brought 
about, simply from regard for an old man who was regarded 
with general esteem; whilst others thought that it was 

* My Scotch, readers may possibly be interested in knowing that the pre- 
ceding narrative having been sent by me a year ago to my lamented brother- 
in-law, Sheriff Arkley, met with his full approval. 

+ Publicly, if not officially, and in an answer given by the President of 
the Solemnity, speaking in his official character, to a query put to him on 
the subject by deputations from several churches. 



424 



LIFE OF CJESAPl MALAK 



time that his capacity of minister of the gospel, which no 
one out of Geneva had ever dreamt of challenging, and 
which, even in Geneva itself, was universally accorded to 
him in personal intercourse, should be recognised in an 
official and public manner, it was their wish that after it 
had been stated how the exercise of the ministerial office 
had been unjustly denied him by the ruling section of the 
Church at a particular period, the history of Geneva might 
be able to furnish evidence, through subsequent transac- 
tions, that that act of injustice had been repudiated. 

The men who cherished these sentiments were the true 
and sincere friends of our National Church, and I was re- 
quested to communicate to my father the wish they enter- 
tained. I see him now, at the moment when I convinced 
him that a serious possibility was involved in the question. 
The old man's eye flashed with sudden light, soon dimmed 
by the presence of deep emotion. After looking at me for an 
instant in silence, " Is it possible I" exclaimed the venerable 
servant of the old Church of Geneva, the Church of con- 
fessors and refugees, the Church of Calvin — " Is it possible 
that I may preach again in St Peter's * before I go into the 
presence of my God ?" 

At the same time, everything depended on the Consis- 
tory ; and consequently, as is always the case where de- 
liberative assemblies are concerned, especially when such 
assemblies have as yet no abundant tradition of precedents 
behind them, everything depended on the way in which 
the Consistory was to be secured in the matter.*)* 

* The Cathedral Church of Geneva. 

t " Owing to a recent change, to which we have already alluded, the 
highest administration of the Protestant Church had been transferred a 



THE QUESTION EALLS THROUGH. 



425 



Meanwhile, a preacher of the National Church, whom 
my father, then in the country, went to hear from time to 
time, requested him to occupy his pulpit. Having under- 
stood him to say that he was ready to comply, the preacher 
entered upon certain proceedings with the Consistory in 
May 1859, which he deemed requisite before feeling him- 
self at liberty to place his pulpit at my father's disposal. 
The Consistory, on a precognition which they demanded 
from the Company of Pastors, resolved to set aside the 
prayer addressed to them, on the ground that it was neces- 
sary first that my father should withdraw the letter in 
which he had declared himself, in 1823, to be no longer 
desirous to remain in the National Church. Thereupon 
the author of the prayer forebore to insist upon it ; and my 
father, seeing that no further reference was being made to 
the matter, by degrees regarded it as at an end. 

It was only two years afterwards, in 1861, in reply to a 
letter in which the same pastor referred to what has just 
been stated, he wrote a reply, an extract of which I proceed 
to furnish : — 

" Vandceuvres, 19t7i August, 1861. 

" Dear and Honoured Brother, — ... To refer simply 
to the demand that I should withdraw my letter to the 
Council of State (14th August 1823), before the Consistory 
could even entertain the idea of re-admitting me into the 
national pulpit in our Canton ; I cannot tell you how much 
that clause distresses me, since it declares, what I was far 
from supposing, that the National Church of our country, 
at least among those who govern it, holds the same opinions 

few years previously, from the 'Venerable Compagnie' of the pastors, to a 
' Consistory,' consisting principally of laymen." 



426 



LIFE OF C^FSAB MALAN. 



which it held more than forty years ago, when it drove 
from its pulpits the orthodox ministers of Geneva. 

"... For me to withdraw now my declaration of the 
14th of August 1823, it would be necessary first for the 
Consistory to give me to understand that it, for its part, 
withdraws what caused me to retire from the National 
Church of Geneva. 

" My protest will fall to the ground of itself as soon as 
the cause which elicited it shall cease to exist. . . . May 
it please God to bring this about ! . . . I wait for it with 
the most fervent desire, . . . rejecting even the thought 
that I, a minister of the Lord Jesus, could have withdrawn 
from a Church faithful to the Son of God." The letter 
closes by permission to his correspondent to publish it if 
he chooses. 

A note in his handwriting, dated 15th of May 1859, 
shows even more clearly the precise character of his wishes. 
The same friend, having told him that he ought to address 
a personal and direct request to the Consistory : " I have 
replied," he writes, " that I by no means seek admission 
into the National Church of Geneva, but permission only 
to exercise my ministry in the State of Geneva ; in other 
words, to preach the gospel, without opposition, in any 
pulpit which may be offered to me." 

We should much prefer seeing in all this nothing more 
than a misunderstanding. My father had in view simply 
the sole rights of the evangelical ministry, rights which 
the Church of Geneva had never hesitated to recognise as 
pertaining to any ecclesiastic who, without being within 
its jurisdiction, was accepted as such by any of the Pro- 
testant Churches. The Consistory, on the other hand, 



I 



THE CONSISTORY IN DIFFICULTIES. 427 

failing to mark the distinction between the vindication of 
their rights, and of the rights which appertained exclu- 
sively to the ministers of the National Church, — concerned 
itself only with the latter. The fault, however, seems not 
to have been chargeable to the Consistory itself, which 
perhaps could only take into consideration the question of 
the readmission of my father into the ranks of the national 
clergy. 

However that may be, it is plain that the reply of the 
Consistory to the demand addressed to it could only be 
regarded by my father as a veiled refusal, and that he 
could not meet it otherwise than he did. In fact, his letter 
to the Council of State, of which the Consistory demanded 
the previous withdrawal, had been the consequence and 
not the cause of the interdiction from ministering which 
had been issued several years before. More than this, that 
interdict had been based solely on my father's refusal to 
submit to the " Eeglement" of May 1817, which had for 
so many years ceased to be quotable as having the force of 
law in the Church of Geneva, so that the Consistory could 
not possibly have had it in view. The only thing on 
which it could rely, therefore, was that unfortunate deci- 
sion by which the " Venerable Assembly," exceeding, as we 
have seen, the powers of a Protestant tribunal, had gone so 
far as to perpetuate, by means of a simple administrative 
arrest, an act of sacerdotal supremacy, in declaring, with- 
out discussion, and in the most absolute way, that " Malan 
was deprived of his holy orders." 

In the presence of this fact, it is evident that the Con- 
sistory could not at least, without committing the same 
fault that we have laid to the charge of the "Venerable 



428 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



Company," annul officially this illusory and illegal decree 
of deposition from the sacred ministry by one of restora- 
tion, which would have been open to the same exception. 
From the moment its attention was drawn to this first 
decree, it had no alternative except to invite my father, at 
his own positive request, to accept a second ordination at 
the hands of the "Company of Pastors." Evidently, to 
such a step as this he never gave a thought. It would 
therefore, Ave believe, have been much better to have 
regarded this decree as having been in excess of the le^al 

o o o 

powers of the ecclesiastical administration to which it 
had succeeded, and to have utterly ignored it. 

From that time, in view of the fact that the interdiction 
which had been pronounced against my father was vir- 
tually annulled by the withdrawal of the " Eeglenient " 
which had occasioned it, evidently the only reply to make 
to his friend was that there was no conceivable reason why 
a pastor of the Church of Geneva should not admit Dr 
Malan into his pulpit as a minister of the holy gospel. 

The Consistory was all the more favourably situated 
with reference to the question from the circumstance that 
it not only had before it the official acts connected with 
the readmission of the minister Bost into the National 
Church, in which the questions at issue were clearly dis- 
cussed, but also that it was regarded universally as having 
inaugurated, in the history of that Church, a new era of 
life and liberty. 

It cannot but be regretted that, under these circum- 
stances, no pastor of the National Church ventured to 
invite my father's services. Such a step would have vir- 
tually annihilated a " suspensio a divinis," the grounds of 



GENERAL VIEW. 



429 



which had no longer weight with any one. We think 
such a course would have tended to the glory of God, and 
that such a man would have deserved well of his Church. 

If, however, it had been deemed desirable to carry 
the matter before the ecclesiastical authorities, it would 
have been necessary that one perfectly versed in the 
facts, and with no personal interests in the discussion, 
should have taken the matter in hand. Everything 
inclines to the belief that, if a proposal, based upon the 
considerations now alleged, had been laid before the Con- 
sistory in proper form, that body would have seized the 
opportunity of closing a long open wound. It would thus 
have accomplished in our judgment a great act of justice, 
and, in the interest of the history of the Church, whose 
progress it directed, a Church which still wears the vene- 
rated name of the ancient Church of our fathers, it is cer- 
tainly to be regretted that this was not the case. 



CHAPTEK III. 



EVENING, AND CLOSE OF HIS LIFE. 

' ' Abide with, me when night is nigh, 
For without Thee I cannot die ! " 

The foregoing chapter has already introduced us into this 
last stage of my father's life, of which it now remains for 
me to recall the beautiful and affecting remembrance. The 
close of his career was, in fact, protracted, and, in some 
respects, painful. To the brilliancy and activity of his 
youth succeeded early those years of which the wise man 
says, " that there is no pleasure in them;" years in which, 
in an isolation continually more and more marked, he had 
also to experience, occasionally, straitened circumstances, 
and continual and prolonged bodily sufferings. 

As we have already seen, he had omitted no effort to 
give his numerous family as careful and complete an 
education as possible. Himself, keenly conscious of the 
species of solitude to which they were reduced, he set to 
work to remedy it by every means in his power; whether 
by fostering the development of what seemed to him their 



DECLINE. 



431 



talents and tastes, or by according them, within the 
domestic limits, whatever pleasure and relaxation com- 
ported with his principles and his means. 

But, in all this, he only followed the dictates of his 
fatherly heart. Hence, when he had completed the 
education of his large family, and, at his advanced age, 
could no longer take boarders, he found himself reduced 
to a position which would never have been suspected by 
those who judged of his circumstances only by what they 
had seen him do for his children. 

At the same time there appeared in him, at a very early 
period, symptoms of a disease which, if it does not at once 
reach the vital parts, affects no less the centre of the 
bodily strength, and even the mental energy. In his 
case, meanwhile, the disease assumed a special character. 
Whilst, generally, the physical weakness, which is one of 
its most distressing features, not only shakes the soundest 
temperaments, but calls out, even in the kindliest and hap- 
piest characters, discontent, murmuring, and rebellion, — this 
was never the case with him. For a long time we were 
unacquainted with his sufferings, and, when we came to 
understand them, we were amazed to see how far, in spite 
of them, and of the nervous unrest which resulted from his 
complaint, his force of will and entire self-forgetfulness 
triumphed. Here, however, were virtues which he had 
practised all his life. I remember when I was a young 
man discovering, accidentally, that he was obliged to look 
closely to his expenditure, and that he allowed me then 
to speak to him about it. After a brief discussion, he 
recommended me to take no more notice of the matter, 
and, above all, not to mention it to my mother : " These 



432 



LIFE OF CJESAfi MALAK 



are things/' he said, "with which I had rather not 
trouble your dear mother, she must not know anything 
about them. As for me, my dear boy, I have felt for a long 
time that the silver and the gold belong to my God and 
heavenly Father, and that He will never suffer us to want 
what is needful." 

But while his faith remained so strong that, instead of 
seeking to disturb those around him, he continued constant 
to his old practice of concerning himself especially with 
making every exertion for them, his suffering was none the 
less evident to all of us. The visits of strangers, who were 
perpetually coming to see and hear him, and even of 
his best friends, instead of proving a source of recreation 
and interest, as they once did, had begun to weary him. 
The cramps in his stomach, from which he had always 
suffered, were now combined with headache, which de- 
prived him of rest, and soon loud buzzings in his ears 
very often took away his sleep. 

Under these circumstances it was not strange to find him 
sometimes smarting too sensibly, perhaps, under a sense of 
his isolated position in Geneva. Not that his intercourse 
with his brethren of the evangelical party was ever devoid 
of mutual respect, or that he was not asked from time to 
time to speak in their places of worship, but only on excep- 
tional and very rare occasions. If the old man — worn out 
with the sufferings of age, and the deceptions by which 
ardent and confiding natures will ever be weighed down — 
exaggerated a little, perhaps, the extent of his annoyances, 
it is not the less true, for all that, that he experienced 
mortification in his old age so intense and profound as 
could be fully described to God alone, by him who was 



PASSED BY. 



433 



called upon to endure them. Nor were they altogether 
without adequate cause. He heard men whose efforts 
had long ago been anticipated by himself, who had even 
at the time hailed him with acclamation, who had only 
walked in the path cleared up for them by his courage 
and devotion, — boast publicly, amid the applause of their 
friends, that " they had been the first to wave in Geneva 
the banner of orthodoxy." Thus he not only found him- 
self withdrawn from the efforts of his youth, but he saw 
others enter into his labour, and parade it as theirs under 
his very eyes, while they impressed upon it a character 
totally alien to his sympathies. He received from officious 
sources copies of such of his own works as had appeared 
anonymously, which were sent to him as models to 
follow, and as a criticism on those which he had issued 
with his name attached. At the gatherings, to which his 
brotherly spirit was for ever taking him, he heard his own 
hymns sung to strange, and often ill-chosen airs, altered, 
too, occasionally, by unskilful hands. He saw himself, if 
not put aside, at least left aside, by men whose opening 
career he had followed, if not guided, with interest. In a 
word, his great soul had to submit in silence, year after 
year, to the sacrifice of personal feeling, as well as to that 
general desertion by which it pleases God that the even- 
ing of His beloved ones should be accompanied after their 
day of action and energy is over, and by means of which, 
in His wisdom and love, He is wont to ripen for glory 
those strong and generous spirits whom He had at one 
time appointed to be head over their brethren. 

And this gracious purpose He commenced, by revealing 

it to His servant. Lamenting with my father one day that . 

2 E 



434 



LIFE OF C^SAR MALAN. 



the path he had to traverse was so arduous, he replied, 
" Yes, it is painful ; but then it is God Who has bid me 
walk in it, and He has excellent reasons for doing so. 
When I was young and strong, I was a hammer of iron, 
which His mighty hand made use of to break up the 
stones. Now it is still His work ; it is still His fatherly 
hand which, after having handled me for use on others, 
is forging me for myself." 

Thus it was that his faith in God kept him from being 
irritated or beaten down. Thus, as we have seen, in con- 
nection with his literary activity, his latter years were, in 
this respect, his most productive. As for his private life, 
it was cheered by the news he received of his numerous 
absent children, and by an active correspondence with 
Foreign Churches and the leaders of the evangelical move- 
ment ; while through all his dejection might be seen, side 
by side with the remains of an ever manly energy, the 
constancy of a faith which became each day more simple 
and touching. 

His thoughts dwelt also, the older he grew, on the 
memories of his childhood. " Alas," he wrote, in 1843, to 
his mother's eldest sister, who was living abroad, " Clave- 
liere is almost in ruins. The linden-tree and the great fir- 
tree have both been cut down. They have knocked down 
the clock wing, and changed the old porch. The fashion 
of this world passeth away ; God seeks to turn our thoughts 
to that which passeth not away." 

We have seen the effects of my brother Jocelyn's death 
upon him, in 1 846 ; and how, in 1 848, he had to close the 
eyes of his gentle and pious mother, " after having had the 
privilege of remaining incessantly with her," — so I read in 



DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. 



435 



some notes of which she is the subject, — " during the five 
months that she was confined to her bed." 

" Everything goes on here/' he writes to my mother, 
" like the glacier which looks as if it never changed its 
place, though it glides on every day with an irresistible 
motion. My good mother is so very pale and cold." After 
saying how the old lady had prayed " God bless thee," 
accompanying the exclamation with some one of the en- 
dearing terms with which she had been accustomed to 
address him in his childhood, he adds, " Alas, she '11 soon 
be unable to utter even that below; but what endless 
things her soul will utter in heaven, where our glorified 
Jocelyn already is ! " 

" I have lost her," he writes in another place, " who 
was, for sixty years, my earliest and my constant friend 
and benefactress." 

It was at this time especially that he began to appear 
depressed and dejected — his elasticity gone. " I find myself 
much as I was in 1819," we read in his Church journal for 
1849, at the time when he saw the remainder of his little 
congregation showing symptoms of an intention to desert 
him and join the new Evangelical Church. From that 
time, he began to feel himself no longer happy at Pre-Beni. 
On the removal of the fortifications, the town had been 
extended. The gardens which had surrounded his dwell- 
ing changed rapidly into noisy suburbs, and high houses 
iooked down on all sides over a spot which till then 
had been a shadowed and secluded solitude. After 
having married two of my sisters to foreign husbands, 
on the same day, he found the house too big for him and 
my mother, and the garden too deserted. Moreover, his 



436 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



writings were no longer eagerly caught up ; new voices 
were heard instead of his. With all the deference paid to 
his name, it was with difficulty that he could get his articles 
inserted in the different religious journals which were being 
rapidly started on all sides. Meanwhile, he could not 
understand how the discussion of this or that passing topic 
of the day was regarded as more important than his grave 
and lucid expositions of scriptural doctrines. The truth is, 
that a new movement, and one with which he was only 
remotely connected, had begun gradually to obscure, 
among the adherents of the evangelical cause, those eternal 
interests of salvation and that personal love of the Saviour 
which had been at the bottom of the courage and persever- 
ance he had displayed in his youth, and which had con- 
tinued to characterise his best years ; while a special pro- 
minence was awarded in many minds to the distracting 
consideration of the rights of Churches, and of the liberties 
of a religious world in which he felt himself out of place, 
and the several factions of which invariably wearied him. 

This is evident from his correspondence at that time. 
His letters are almost always called forth by some necessity 
arising to vindicate the position of independence he had 
assumed with regard to the ecclesiastical parties, whether 
in Geneva or abroad. The impression produced on reading 
them is of a mixed character. While they evince an 
elevation of thought and catholicity of spirit, developed 
with ever-increasing clearness, it is impossible to feel indif- 
ferent at the proof they give of the degree to which his 
isolation had weighed him down. 

" I have ever received at my own table, as at the table 
of the Lord, all the disciples of Jesus Christ," he writes to 



A SENSITIVE CONSCIENCE. 



437 



a friend who had deserted him because he had entertained 
a professor of the Established Church of Scotland. "What- 
ever might be the form of the Church to Avhich they 
belonged, I have ever shown them respect and affection. 
Dissenter though I am myself, I am far from supposing 
that my friends are confined to dissenters. JSTo, no ! the 
Lord Jesus has not forsaken His sheep because the pasture 
in which they feed is under the protection of the great ones 
of the earth." 

At Geneva, where he suffered daily, he never hesitated 
to cross-examine himself over and over again as to Avhe- 
ther by any possibility he could follow a different line. 
This appears in the numerous letters which passed between 
him and the pastors of the evangelical Church at that 
time. We see there, side by side with an entire inter- 
communion of faith and piety, the evidence of two opinions 
clearly defined. On the one side predominate the inte- 
rests and the unity of the visible Church ; on the other, 
purity of doctrine, and the hopelessness of attempting to 
confine the free action of the Holy Spirit to fixed institu- 
tions. The correspondence, from this point of view, is 
full of interest. Whilst the thorough uprightness of the 
men to whom it introduces us prevented them from having 
any reserve with one another, their sentiments of mutual 
deference and fervent charity invariably reunited them, in 
a stronger bond, at each point of separation. I refer espe- 
cially to the letters between my father and Merle 
D'Aubigne, in which the tenderness of an old friendship 
blended with the traits arising out of the character and 
piety of the two men. 

" It is good," he says, in a letter to one of his children 



438 LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



to whom lie had been in the habit of speaking his mind 
very freely, after a passing reference to his regret at finding 
himself estranged abroad from many old friends, — " it is 
good, it is necessary, that heaven should reveal itself to ns 
as a reality, utterly different from this poor world, even 
from the so-called Christian world. The heart draws 
closer to the Friend who remains the same for ever — even 
the Lord Jesus. So faithful, so sincere, so real !" 

Gradually he withdrew altogether from the scene. After 
1848 he used to pass the summer in a little country house 
which he had inherited from his mother at Vandceuvres. 
Eventually, in 1855, he resolved, by his son's advice, to 
take up his abode there entirely. This he did in 1857, 
after having exhibited once more in the sale of Pre-Beni 
and in the thousand matters of detail which such a change 
involved — the decision, energy, and .activity of his best 
years. It was no light thing, indeed, at seventy years of 
age, to leave the neighbourhood of the town where he had 
always lived, and the house in which thirty-five years of 
domestic life had been passed, and to carry out such 
repairs and building arrangements as were necessary for 
an entirely new establishment in a retired village, with 
no further change in prospect ; to have his library con- 
veyed there ; to set up his workshop and lithographical 
machinery ; above all, to change his study, — to desert the 
old one filled with endless memories, and which had been 
for so long a time the sanctuary of his joys and sorrows 
in the presence of his God. 

His plans determined on, however, he did not hesitate ; 
indeed, so far was he from regretting his decision, that we 
even wondered at the readiness with which he adapted 



VANDCEUVRES. 



439 



himself to the change. We soon found him becoming 
daily more enamoured of his retreat. Moreover, he was 
the first to recognise with gratitude to God that that de- 
cision which had been to him so painful originally, had 
nevertheless, by determining his position, led to a provi- 
sion for his old age amply sufficient for his moderate wants 
and simple and orderly habits. 

The traveller landing at Geneva by a lake steamer, on 
one of those warm, bright summer evenings which lend to 
our climate the glow of an Italian sunset, — after gazing 
wonderingly at the crimsoned ridges of the glaciers of 
Mont Blanc, will notice, as his eye forsakes the paling 
mountain, a hill which skirts the shore by the margin of 
which he is being rapidly borne. Many villas cluster on 
its beautiful ridges, gleaming among the dark green masses 
of park and thicket foliage. Its name is " Cologny," the 
name, too, of the village which crowns it on the west, 
within twenty minutes' walk of Geneva. 

Setting out from the city and arriving there, he will 
leave behind him the dusty roads of the suburbs, and 
even the distant views of the bridges and quays. Ex- 
tending his walk a little further he will reach the sum- 
mit of the hill, where he will be compelled to pause. The 
sublimest of prospects unveils before him its sudden 
splendours. Face to face with him are the eternal Alps, 
surrounding with their sky-piercing pinnacles the snowy 
form of their majestic monarch, and encircled by an outer 
range, alternately bare and wooded. At his feet he sees, 
not here, as on the other side of the city, the blue and 
motionless surface of the Leman, but a long wide plain, 



440 



LIFE OF CjFSAR MALAN. 



spreading under his gaze, with its towns, cottages, and 
woods, — and melting by degrees into the nearest declivities 
of the Voirons, of Mole and of Saleve ; while the eye 
follows its last windings into the heart of the populous 
valleys which lose themselves between the above-named 
mountains. Here and there, on all sides, country houses 
of the citizens, — some of them veritable chateaux, — face, 
with their groves and lawns, the tranquil and majestic 
landscape. Near him at his feet glitters, among the trees 
which conceal its base, the summit of a modest steeple, 
with peasants' cottages grouped around. It is the 
church and village of Vandceuvres, one of the loveliest 
retreats a sage could covet, wherein to forget the turmoil 
of busy towns ; or a Christian, wearied with the tumult of 
life, to prepare himself for those eternal mansions which 
the distant view of the lofty Alps, more vividly even than 
the ocean itself, seems fitted to suggest to the soul. 

At the extremity of the village, out of sight and hearing 
of its houses, stands the modest dwelling where my father 
spent the seven last years of his life. You scarcely enter 
it when you see right in front, through the glazed door, 
Mont Blanc himself, the centre of the landscape the 
details of which we have endeavoured to describe. Close 
at hand a long terrace, supported by a low wall, stretches 
in front of the house, extending beyond it on either 
side. Lower down is a flower garden with a vine-clad 
arbour, and, lower still, a small orchard bordered with oaks, 
and shaded here and there by a few fruit trees. At one 
end of the terrace a wooden summer-house offers its 
shelter from the north wind. Brought here from the 
Pre-Beni, it bears on its front the passage of Scripture 



THE EVENING SACRIFICE. 441 



which my father inscribed upon it in 1823: " Then they 
that feared the Lord spake often one to another : and the 
Lord hearkened, and heard," (Mai iii. 16.) Seated there, 
we see before ns, on the other side of the garden, an old 
house almost entirely covered with a wild vine. It still 
contains some habitable rooms in which my father used to 
put up those of his family who came to stay with him 
from time to time. 

Such is the retreat to which my parents withdrew in 
1857, with one of my sisters who never left them, and who 
still lives there with my mother. 

At the time of the sale of the Pre-Beni, my father took 
care to reserve the usufruct of his chapel, as well as 
possession of its materials. His object in this was to pre- 
vent, after his death, a building so long consecrated to 
the preaching of the gospel, being handed over to secular 
uses. 

So, while living at Vandceuvres, he continued to minister 
at the chapel. Giving up the week meetings, however, he 
confined himself to the Sunday services ; generally walking 
over for the purpose. He contrived a little room in the 
summer-house where he had commenced his meetings in 
1819, in which he rested a few moments before entering 
the pulpit, and where he received, after the sermon, any 
who might wish to speak to him. 

Who shall conjecture his thoughts in that place where 
he had commenced his courageous testimony, and where he 
came forty years afterwards, a white-haired old man, not 
to contemplate the triumph of his own labours, but to bow 
down before the same Lord and Master Who had so won- 
derfully accomplished the work under his own eyes. 



442 



LIFE OF CJESAR MALAN. 



In those concluding years his preaching changed wonder- 
fully. There were days when he seemed to have sum- 
moned back the fire, the clearness, the eloquence of his 
youth. His congregation, too, which had been so reduced 
after 1849, increased very perceptibly. For himself, his 
pulpit ministrations alone gave importance to a life which 
was becoming feebler every day. Sometimes, on a doubt 
arising, as to whether he would be strong enough for the 
next Sunday's service, he would appear to hesitate, yet, 
when the day came, he would set out on foot for the city, 
often through rain and snow. It was not till afterwards 
that he had recourse to a conveyance, and, at first, only 
for his return. !Not only throughout his whole life did he 
avoid, as far as possible, occasioning Sunday labour to 
any, but he seemed positively on that day to regain 
something of his former vigour. 

That vigour, however, was only called forth in him, in 
connection with eternal interests. As we have already 
seen, he never attached much importance to the strifes of 
parties, and the excitement of what is called the reli- 
gious world. Now, more than ever, the invisible king- 
dom, the work of God in human hearts, the return of 
wandering souls to a holy and merciful Father, "Whom 
the Saviour reveals, and to Whom He conducts, — became 
each day increasingly his constant and soul-absorbing 
concern. 

W 7 hen he asked me for news from Geneva, it was in this 
direction that his inquiry pointed. It was his delight to 
hear of the gospel being preached with life and warmth, 
whatever might be the Church where it was delivered, and 
whose-soever the Hps that delivered it. As for the ever- 



LATEST BAYS. 



443 



changing affairs of men, and the ever-deceiving promises 
of parties, he ignored, and, what is more, he wished to 
ignore them. He felt it a relief to be, as he nsed to say, 
"removed from all that." Almost lost sight of by those 
who had come after him, he was, to the general public, 
merely an old man, whose irreproachable life and habitual 
benevolence commanded universal respect. Educated 
men, while they saluted him with marked respect, were 
in evident terror, "lest he should question them about 
their souls." The people, however, who were not so over- 
sensitive were instinctively drawn towards him. His 
« departure from Eaux Vives was a positive grief to many 
families in that populous parish, and at Yaudoeuvres he 
soon found himself invested with the confidence and 
respect of all the villagers. 

There, too, he found, in the good pastor of the place, a 
man as courteous as he was large-hearted. He made a 
point of attending his church whenever his own service 
was in the afternoon, as it usually w r as in winter. While, 
on their part, M. Theremin and his family never ceased to 
evince towards my mother and him the most thoughtful 
and devoted attention, which tended greatly to diminish 
the solitude of their life, and the remembrance of which 
they will always gratefully cherish. 

Erom time to time a return of strength arrested for a 
moment the weakness and infirmity of age. Thus, during 
the first years of his stay at Vandceuvres, he was greatly 
occupied with the publication of several of his tracts in 
America. A gentleman, till then unknown to him, having 
read some of them, wished to see English versions of them 
distributed through the United States. Correspondence 



444 



LIFE OF GMBAE MALAN. 



with him, his warmth of heart, and his zeal for the interests 
of the gospel, were among the sweetest mercies with which 
it pleased God to brighten the last years of my father's 
life. 

Another great delight was the festival of the Evangelical 
Alliance, which took place at Geneva, in August 1861. 
Nothing could more thoroughly harmonise with what had 
been all his life long the one earnest desire of his soul, 
than the idea on which that Alliance had been established. 
"We may recall his words in 1818. "Whatever be his 
confession or denomination, the man who believes with all 
his heart in the merits of the Lord Jesus is my brother, 
and as soon as I recognise him as such I will make him 
feel it to the utmost of my power." It is well known 
that the. leaders of the Genevese branch of the Alliance 
thought that they ought to replace, by a dogmatic formula, 
clearly expressed, the simple declaration of faith and piety 
which had served till then as the rallying standard of the 
Association ; my father, though he did not start the idea, 
certainly supported it. Indeed, he had long cherished a 
wish that the Alliance would adopt what he called "a 
more open and living confession," while, at the same time, 
he deplored the fact that his brethren of the National 
Church kept aloof from it* From his point of view, 

* I find the following opinion on the subject of Confessions of Faith in a 
letter he wrote, in 1862, to a friend of his :— "For my part, I always 
looked upon Confessions of Faith, in Christ's Church, nob as obligatory 
formulas and rules for thought, belief, or profession ; but as (what they 
really are) solemn manifestations of conviction ; sign-posts, as it were, 
on the high-roads ; placed to show the way where paths diverge. Did 

the sign-post ever constitute the road itself ? The science of 

sciences must also declare what it is, not in order to make itself what it 
already is, but in order to manifest itself openly." " It certainly does not 



IN ST PETERS. 



445 



indeed, lie could only see, in such a formula, a sign of 
fidelity and frankness in the confession of the faith itself. 
Letters, which he wrote to a friend at that time, show the 
indignation he felt at the protest which emanated from 
twenty-two of the National clergy, against this declaration 
of orthodoxy. One would have said that the cry of 
"Negation" had been heard again after a long silence, 
denounced once so opeuly by his powerful voice. 

It was not without emotion, and gratitude to God, as 
evinced by these same letters, that he found himself on 
that occasion, after an interval of more than forty years, 
one of a multitude of godly men, present from all parts, at 
this great solemnity, in the church of St Peter, which, to 
all Genevese Protestants, is the sanctuary and palladium of 
their country. He had not crossed its threshold since the 
day when, in August 1818, he had preached that sermon 
which had resulted in his inhibition. Now it was no 
longer to strive, or to protest, but to render thanks, that 
he was present there. His joy, too, was unalloyed at the 
thought of what God had done in Geneva since that day, 
so many years ago, when He had chosen him "to raise 
from the dust the fallen standard of the gospel of truth. 

Apart from the sufferings and infirmities entailed upon 
him by his great age, it may be remarked that his life at 
Vandceuvres was a period of repose, and retrospect, and of 
sweet and peaceable meditation. He received visits — not, 
as at Pre-Beni, from a number of strangers who came to 

imply that the minister of God ought to be made a slave to a prescribed 
form, but teaches this first, that it behoves him not to presume, as if he 
were infallible ; or, secondly, that he is called upon to examine for himself 
how far such a Confession of Faith expresses the Holy Spirit's actual 
teaching." 



446 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



see the man whose fame had reached their ears, but from 
those exclusively whom affection or genuine spiritual con- 
cern induced to seek him out in his retirement. Nume- 
rous enough in the summer, they were often productive 
to him of sweet and sometimes sacred pleasure. 

It was not only strangers, however, who came to see 
him. A gentleman who, though much younger than him- 
self, had been one of his oldest friends, and who spent, 
like him, the last years of his life in the country near 
Vandceuvres — Col. H. Tronchin — never ceased, to the very 
last, to cheer and enliven his solitude. " How often," 
writes my sister, who lived with my father and mother, 
" has that excellent man thought nothing of the distance 
which separates his house from this, while his own health 
was shattered, and even sometimes the worse of the two, — 
to bring a word of cheering encouragement and affection 
to his old friend. The character of their minds, the frank- 
ness and the firmness of their faith, agreed so well. Our 
door was never closed to him, nor did the two believers 
ever meet on the threshold of the eternal world without 
my father feeling rejoiced and re-animated by the inter- 
view."* 

It was my privilege to see him constantly during 
these years; and often have I been elevated, strength- 
ened, aroused, by his clear, positive, simple, earnest teach- 
ing. Never was he more thoroughly my guide, my 
comforter, my friend, and the father I mourn ! The days 
when, as he used to say, he felt I should come, he would 
go a little way back with me for a walk. Sometimes, 
towards the end, I had to urge him to take his stick. 

* Col. Tronchin died a year after my father. 



THE GOLDEN JUBILEE. 



447 



Scarcely, however, had we started than he raised his head, 
his step recovered its elasticity, and his conversation re- 
called his brightest days, alternately familiar and lively, or 
grave, earnest, and affecting. Then, as always, there was 
no mention of proper names, as that wonld have been but 
idle gossip. We talked of family news. He never forget 
to inquire after my little ones, whom he had baptized, and 
whom he tenderly loved ; as well as their mother, whom 
he delighted to call his " beloved daughter." 

Occasionally, during that period, in the summer months, 
he would visit me early at Geneva. Seating himself at 
our table, his presence alone was a treat to our elder 
children, who are now described by their juniors as 
"those who knew their grandfather." He entered into 
all the details of my earliest joys and sorrows as a father ; 
and his image is inseparably associated with the remem- 
brances of the commencement of my domestic life. 

On the 25th of April 1861, my parents celebrated the 
fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. Some of their 
children were able to collect for the occasion from foreign 
parts. A simple repast, with a few choice dishes and 
flowers sent by old friends of the family, and a piece of 
plate, the offering of a few members of his reduced congre- 
gation, was prepared for the festival, at which were present 
a few of his children and grandchildren. My father began 
by returning thanks to Him Who had led him safely so 
far, then he addressed a few graceful words to our mother — 
courteous and appropriate. Amongst the many congratu- 
latory letters, there were several which it would have been 
a pleasure to preserve. One of them contained some 
verses from the minister Bungener, by whose sentiments 



us 



LIFE OF C^SAR MALAN. 



my father was deeply affected. I give the poem, which 
was entitled Zes Trois Couronnes. 

" The first was on the brow 
Long years had covered o'er with tresses white, 
Ere at a joyous feast the glad sun's light 
Silvered its locks of snow. 

" The second served t' adorn 
Father and mother with its rim of gold ; 
The blessed fruit of half a century told 
Of wedded love, were gathered at their feet, 
Children and grandchildren, their hearts to greet, 
Upon their marriage morn. 

" The third, unseen, awaiteth him on high, 
"Where at the solemn hour — to man unknown — 
The Lord shall faithful labours own, 

And crown his long-wrought service in the sky. 

" And sons and loving ones cried, { Wait awhile ! ■ 

Lord, yet a little while, in mercy stay ; 
Ere yet his boyhood had begun to smile 

He caught the gleam of Thine eternal day ! 
Leave him in love and hope to linger yet, 

Quench not the shining light, its lustre spare ; 
And, J esu, when on earth his sun has set, 

Be his the crown of righteousness to wear ! ' " * 



* Translated from the original of M. Bungener. 

The translator would take this opportunity of adding a version of one of 
Malan's hymns — omitted from that portion of the book for which it was 
originally intended. The original was composed by the author at a time 
when he was called, in a measure, to suffer for the truth's sake, and was 
often sung by him, voice and heart in full tune with the words. 

He wrote it in 1821, after a pedestrian tour in Switzerland, and a visit to 
Constance. The sight of that city — once so prosperous, now, as it were, 
visited with the displeasure of the Most High — struck him deeply. While 
he lived among the traditions of the blessed Beformation, the names of 
John Huss, of Jerome of Prague, and of the English Wickliffe, were 
specially dear to him 

His first care was to visit the State in which the persecuting council had 



A GRACEFUL SERENADE. 



449 



We were just preparing to return home, — our father and 
mother being exhausted with the day's excitement. He 
indeed had already retired to his room, when an unwonted 



assembled. Thence he turned to the martyr's prison, and saw the "cage" 
in which he had been incarcerated. A piece of this he brought back with 
him, and hung it over his mantle-piece among other similar relics. 

HYMN OF JOHN HTJSS IN PEISON. 

Jesu, Son of God most High, 

See me in this dungeon drear ; 
For Thy glorious name I lie 

Fetter bound, a captive, here. 
Vengeance this of foes of Thine, 
Dooming me till death to pine : 
Yet, 0 Saviour King, for Thee 
Sweet is suffering to me ! 

In my life was never cause, 

Thus, for meed of savage ire ; 
For the rigour of their laws, 

For their baptism of fire ; 
Love of Thee was all my sin — 
All they sought without, within ; 
Yet, 0 Saviour King, for Thee 
Sweet is suffering to me ! 

When I told them from Thy word, 
How Thy cross atonement made — 

How Thy "precious blood," outpoured, 
All redemption's price hath paid — 

Curses hailed my loving warning, 

Hurled by men Thy message scorning ; 

Yet, 0 Saviour King, for Thee 

Sweet is worst reproach to me ! 

When I spoke of all Thy grace, 

Of salvation perfected, 
Of a pardon for the race — 

They but heaped upon my head, 
(Scowling, with contempt irate,) 
Insult fierce and withering hate ; 
Yet, 0 Saviour King, to me 
Sweet is all, endured for Thee ! 

2 F 



450 



LIFE OF CJESAB MALAN. 



light, and the first notes of a choir of male voices brought 
him to the window. Some students in theology, with a 
few friends, had come from the city to greet with a torch- 
light serenade the man whose very name they had learned 
to reverence. Such a termination of the day crowned it 
worthily. After addressing them in a few heartfelt words, 
my father retired, full of wonder and gratitude at the 
general sympathy which he had encountered on this 
memorable anniversary.* 

It is of those first years of my father's retirement at 
Vandceuvres that M. J. A. Bost gave such a true account, 
from which I may be permitted to make a few extracts :"f" — 
" What a peaceful charm ! — what blessing ! — what sweet 
and precious remembrances I have of afternoons and even- 
Thus this body, faint and frail — 

Far removed from gleam of day — 
Pangs of cruel thirst assail, 

Pangs of hunger waste away ; 
And the gyves and clanking chain 
Drag me down to deeper pain ; 
Yet, 0 Saviour King, for Thee 
Bright the dungeon is to me ! 
Now I wait their crowning deed ; 

Soon their vengeance will be o'er ; 
Death, the captive exile speed, 

Swiftly to a painless shore ! 
Upward borne on wings of flame, 
For the honour of Thy name ! 
0 Lord Jesu, Saviour King, 

Whispers oft my heart to me — 
Can Thy service suffering bring ? 
Is it death to die for Thee ? 

* It is worthy of remark that my father was not the oldest surviving 
member of his family at that time. His mother's eldest sister was then 
living at Florence, where she shortly afterwards died, having all but com- 
pleted her 100th year. 

f " Caesar Malan: Impressions, Notes, and Souvenirs." 1865. P. 59. 



PORTRAIT OF A ROOM. 



451 



ings spent at his house. On the terrace, in the garden, in 
the drawing-room, in his work-room, everywhere, he was 
the same ; simple and unpretending, his manner affection- 
ate and brotherly, his conversation lively and diversified ; 
though he never forgot that he was the ambassador of 
Christ, and was constantly discovering means of intro- 
ducing the solemn subjects which filled his thoughts. I 
was soon in his room, and seated by the organ on which 
he had composed and played all his hymns • the mantle- 
piece before me, the ornaments of which recalled so many 
episodes in his missionary life ; inscriptions on all sides ; 
texts from the Bible ; drawings, portraits, beads, and other 
relics, — the fruits of his influence over the souls he had been 
the means of enlightening ; all kinds of souvenirs of his 
family, his journeys, his friends, his youth, his children in 
the faith, the deliverances God had wrought out for him. 
That room was a museum, a library, a workshop ; he ought 
to have written its history. He sometimes thought of 
doing so. But it was a sanctuary, too." 

Again : " Eound the tea-table, what inexhaustible ani- 
mation — what usefulness — the old man displayed ! If there 
were children present, how he exerted himself in their 
behalf — disinterring the memories of his youth that he 
might find something to interest them. Then when, after 
family worship, we took our leave, he would give his 
friends a parting word, and we separated in the sincerity 
and delight of brotherly love." 

My father was much occupied with his hymns at that 
time. This was his last work, with the exception of his 
daily study of the Scriptures — a study to which he devoted 
himself to the last. He revised those he had in his port- 



452 



LIFE OF CJESAE MALAX. 



folio, and composed fresh ones, never deceiving himself 
as to the inequality that existed among them ; and en- 
joyed reading portions of them to his friends, asking, " Do 
you think that worth printing ?" " He brought more love 
than self-love to his task, and challenged friendlv criticism 
spontaneously, making notes at the time," we read in 
Bost's notice, — he being, I believe, one of the "friends" 
referred to. As I have already mentioned, my father 
left behind him more than a thousand hymns, a great 
number of which he had carefully revised. This was his 
favourite employment, and he regarded it as a legacy 
to his brethren. His correspondence at this time closes 
with precious testimonies of that life of faith and personal 
piety which became increasingly his absorbing care. I 
give an instance from a letter which he wrote, in May 
1861, to an aged friend drawing near his death : — 

" I often anticipate that solemn hour which is to witness 
the close of my earthly life, and I ask whether my peace 
and hope are steadfast, and whether I can enter fearlessly 
the realities of eternity. It is then that I realise the worth, 
the power, the calm sovereignty of the promises of God. 
' He that hath the Son hath life: ' and I realise that doctrine 
of grace that I have Christ indeed, because I firmly believe 
that He is living in His Father's presence in heaven, and 
that in Him and by Him have been wrought out and fully 
accomplished the redemption and eternal salvation of those 
whom the Father has given Him. Here, — emphatically 
here, — is the repose of my soul, and the ground of my ex- 
pectation. Here alone I find my assurance of being in 
heaven, in that heaven which I see so near me, wherein I 
behold only the Eternal, the glorified saints, the elect 



A ROYAL VISIT. 453 

angels, and where I could never have entered had it not 
pleased the Father to choose me in Christ, and to give me 
true life in Him, and to prepare me for His presence." 

From time to time some unexpected joy befell him. 
Among the greatest was a visit in 1853 from his old friend 
Paul Henry of Berlin, whom he had never met since 1815, 
when they parted at Schaffhausen, and who died in the 
following year. 

I may be permitted also to refer in this place to another 
visit which my father was far from expecting. One day, 
in the autumn of 1862, on my asking him, as I entered 
his room, what had transpired since our last meeting, he 
told me laughingly of the dismay of an inexperienced 
young servant whom my mother had just engaged. The 
girl, amazed at seeing a carriage stop at our little garden 
gate, and a noble lady issue from it with her attendants, 
had run to my father's room announcing the stranger by 
some inconceivable name. Going downstairs he found 
himself in the presence of the Queen of Holland, who had 
spared a few hours, in passing through Geneva, to pay him 
a visit at Vandoeuvres. I did not know till then that he 
had ever been presented to her. I asked him if he had 
been careful, at all events, in addressing her, to observe 
the prescribed forms. Eecovering his seriousness in a 
moment, he replied, K Ah, my dear boy, I know nothing 
about that, positively ; all I know is, that I addressed her 
as a minister of God. I had no time to think of any but 
eternal things. The one important consideration is the 
gospel and the Saviour. "We spoke of the salvation of the 
soul ; of that vast eternity to which we are hastening." 
" Your father's words are engraven in my recollection, and 



454 



LIFE OF CsFSAB MA LAN. 



I often recall them "with gratitude," writes the illustrious 
lady, who was so willing to mark her interest in the vener- 
ahle servant of God by visiting him in his humble retreat. 
The Lord remember this cup of cold water given to one of 
His children ! 

And my father needed refreshment and encouragement 
by the way. His strength decayed rapidly. Each time I 
saw him I found him more infirm, and, at first, more 
silent. For a long time certainly it was a gradual and 
almost insensible change, but I noted with concern its too 
evident progress. His image comes back to me at that 
time, as described by my sister, to whom I have already 
alluded. 

" Like Abraham, sitting at the door of his tent and con- 
templating, in protracted and sublime meditation, the divine 
promises, so did this second Abraham, — this calm, peace- 
ful old man, — sit in his chair, and hold silent communion 
with his God. How often we found him, — with clasped 
hands and uplifted eyes, — apparently plunged into the 
invisible world : his expression calm, gentle, and serious. 
The sacred volume was before him. He never left off 
reading it till the approach of death veiled his eyes. For 
hours he meditated on it ; studied it ; searched into it 
again and again. His Bible ; covered with notes and 
his writing ; is, as it were, a monument of his declining 
years. 

" One of the last religious services, at which he presided 
in his chapel, was the ordination of M. Lenoir to the 
sacred ministry, in June 1863. Three or four pastors had 
gathered round the pulpit. Learning from one of his 
deacons that a minister from abroad, with whom he had 



REACHING THE HORIZON. 455 



kept up an affectionate correspondence, was present, he 
sent to ask him to come up, and greeting him tenderly, as 
a father might a son, rapidly exchanged with him a few 
earnest words, and then placed him in the midst of the 
ordaining pastors. The sermon and prayers had no other 
preparation than the long experience and fervent piety of 
the preacher, but the congregation remained under a sense 
of the real presence of the Spirit of God, and their inter- 
cessions will ever follow him for whom they were offered."* 

A few days before the ordination (June 19th), I find the 
following in my father's journal: "Dear Gaussen is with 
the Lord ! What ineffable bliss for his soul !" 

And my father craved no more for himself. He had 
done with the world. Already he had witnessed the de- 
parture of many of his fellow-labourers and the friends of 
his youth — Empeytaz, Rochat, Olivier, Galland, and nume- 
rous others. We felt, too, as if we saw him gradually 
withdrawing from us. One might have accused him of 
apathy, had not his tenderness to us, and his faith in God, 
remained as deep as ever. It was evident that, if he did 
thus alienate himself from the world, it was because his 
soul was rapidly approaching that heavenly country, where 
eternal glory and bliss were never more joyously, more 
victoriously, anticipated. 

On the 11th of October he had a baptism in his chapel ; 
on the 8th of November he mounted the pulpit for the last 
time. 

He had long been silently battling with his disease. He 
found it increasingly necessary for him to drive to his Sun- 
day service, which he was compelled occasionally to entrust 

* J. A. Bost. Ibid. 



456 LIFE OF CJESAF MALAX. 



to others. At the end of November, I learnt that he was 
in bed ; but as I was ill myself, he sent to forbid my going 
out to see him. Hearing, however, the next day that he 
was in great pain, I went to him. The same evening I 
returned with a surgeon. After a few days, in which he 
was a little better, he had to take to his bed again, and 
permitted me at once to call in Dr Duval, a physician whose 
skilful services in my own family I had learnt to appreciate, 
and who, up to the very end, displayed a zeal and devotion 
to my deaT father which powerfully contributed to soothe 
our distress, and to alleviate the sufferings of the in- 
valid. 

It was not long before the doctor told me plainly that 
the case was beyond cure. My father, was now confined 
to his bed by paralysis in the extremities, though his 
sufferings had somewhat abated. Conscious as he was, 
however, of the gravity of his attack, I knew him too well 
to hesitate as to whether he should learn the whole truth. 
Eeservino- it for mvself to tell mv mother, I bested the 

O w „ » GO 

doctor to take the first opportunity of letting him know 
everything. 

The next day, when Dr Duval had left him, he called 
my mother and myself into his room. Addressing her, he 
said, "Well, my dear Jenny, it seems that I am nailed to 
this bed." Then, asking me with a look how far he might 
go, " The dear young man," he said, speaking of Dr Duval, 
"was quite distressed; he was afraid of paining me. I 
soon put him at his ease. I told him that all was well ; 
that I understood what he had to tell me ; that I was given 
over by human skill, and then we spoke of heavenly things." 
Dwelling no longer on the thought of his death, he recurred 



DEATH, BUT NO CONDEMNATION. 



437 



frequently to his sensations at noticing the natural hesita- 
tion which the doctor, who might easily have seemed young 
to him, had manifested in the discharge of his solemn duty. 

It was only to spare us, however, that he was thus 
silent ; for, from that moment, he was another man. While 
he had never regarded his sufferings as being merely 
temporary in their character, — the anxiety they occasioned, 
and the helplessness to which he found himself suddenly, 
and for the first time, reduced, had combined to make him 
restless and depressed. Though he never uttered a word 
of fretfulness or murmuring, still it was evident that it 
was only by an effort that he could maintain his patience. 
But from the moment that he was told that he would 
never " quit the bed on which he was gone up," * a peace 
and an absolute calm took possession at once of his whole 
being ; and, when the pain was not too great, his expres- 
sion, if words were wanting, never ceased to utter the 
most tender love to all who approached him. 

Such was his state during the last four months of his 
life ; especially during the two last, which literally were 
nothing short of a terrible and prolonged agony. 

With many others of our family who had come from 
various parts, I established myself in his house. He could 
not bear long visits — it was even evident that he did 
not like us to sit by his bed. One day, on catching the 
look of intense sympathy that the sight of his sufferings 
called up in me, he said, "Do not stay, dear, this is not the 
place for you." Sitting in the next room we could see 
him through the half-open door, propped up with pillows, 
his hands cramped with pain, his eyes lowered, whilst his 

* 2 Kings i. 4. 



458 



LIFE OF CJESAB MA LAN. 



moving lips showed that he was breathing out a low- 
voiced prayer. 

These were his worst days, however; he had better 
ones, and then he w T ould have his Bible open on his bed at 
some part of the gospel, in which he read at intervals. 
One day, when one of my sisters had entered after his 
doctor had just left, " What honour ! " he exclaimed, 
what joy ! " laying his hand on the sacred Volume. " God 
has given me grace, enabling me once more to preach the 
glad tidings of the gospel from my deathbed ! " 

By degrees the news of his sufferings became widely 
spread. On all sides, at Geneva and abroad, as we after- 
wards learnt, his brethren assembled to pray for him. 
This was the case in all the dissenting chapels in Geneva. 
In his own church, where meetings had been held for two 
years, under the presidency of some pious men, every 
Friday evening, they did not cease to intercede for him. 
In one of these meetings, which was particularly affecting, 
says one who was present, there was a presentiment (after- 
wards realised) that it would be the last.* It was presided 
over by the Pastor Barde, who, after mentioning that at 
the time when that chapel was built, he had been among 
the opponents of the " Methodists," invited those present 
to join him in pleading with the Lord for its founder, then 
in his last struggle. 

Towards the close of his illness he was seldom able to 
see any one. One of his friends, on leaving his room, said 
in my hearing, as though he were talking to himself, " He 
had, as it were, a halo of glory around him!" I was not 
surprised to hear him say so. Indeed, if my father's was a 

* J. A. Bost's Notices, p. 64. 



LIGHT! 



459 



silent deathbed, it was truly glorious. He spoke little; 
sometimes lie never uttered a word the whole day. But 
he did more. His whole soul absorbed within itself, — he 
endured, without a murmur, without even a groan, suffer- 
ings, the mere sight of which deeply affected the servants, 
and even the medical attendants. Night and morning he 
apologised to his attendant for the pain he had given him. 
The servant, an old artillery man, who never quitted his 
room for a single instant, felt in his own soul the grandeur 
of that simple, silent, calm submission. " Our master," he 
said to me, "is no soldier running up to the guns, he 
walks into them." 

" Those six months," I wrote, shortly after his death, to 
Merle D'Aubigne, " and especially the two last — months of 
torture borne without a murmur, with silent adoration, 
with (allow me the expression) a grace and tenderness, 
touching and sustained, I cannot describe in writing." 

In fact, his deathbed seemed to those who witnessed it 
the most surprising of all his achievements. Said the 
doctor to me one day on leaving him, " I have just be- 
held what I have often heard of, but what I never saw 
before. Now I have seen it, as I see this stick I carry in 
my hand." "And what have you seen?" I asked. "Faith, 
faith" he answered ; " not the faith of a theologian, but of 
a Christian ! I have seen it with my eyes." 

Ten or twelve times was I summoned to pray by his 
deathbed. " That 's the thing to do me good," he said to 
me once, when the prayer was over. " How fearfully you 
are suffering, my dear father ! " I exclaimed. Eaising his 
hand with an effort, and looking at me with his long and 
speaking gaze, he replied, " I do not suffer a moment too 



460 



LIFE OF CjESAR MALAN. 



much. I say not that God allows it ! No, no I" he added 
earnestly, "but God ordains it;" and, the next moment, 
" It is that that gives one real consolation !" 

Who would not long after such a faith in the eternal 
decrees of God which can thus endue the weak soul of 
man with a hero's strength, in the anguish, humiliation, 
and down- crushing of the bed of death I 

On another occasion, shortly after, I spoke to him of the 
heavenly glory, of entrance into the dwelling of the Lord, 
of the sight of Jesus, of his beloved Master. Fixing on 
me a deep, calm look, conveying an expression of semi- 
surprise, " Why, God," he exclaimed, " Heaven, glory, 
the Saviour — these are realities — realities ! Why 
employ them to work ourselves into an excitement ? 
They are realities," he repeated. " It is this that passeth 
away : " showing me his emaciated, and all but paralysed, 
hands. 

One day I asked him, after having again prayed with 
him, if he felt any distress of mind, any doubt, any ob- 
scurity in his heart. Eaising his eyes, and casting a glance 
around him, " No," he said ; " I am not alone ! " and re- 
peated twice, " No, there are no clouds over my sky !" 
When I said again to him that " even our Saviour, in His 
agony, had felt the need of the presence of His friends," 
and implored him to let me know if a season of trouble 
visited him, he promised he would : and would seek the 
ministry of my prayers. He never did so. 

In general, his faculties remained unimpaired to the 
last. To one who visited him he could say, " The Lord 
is with me, — as I have ever known Him ; " adding the 
next moment, with his sweet and tranquil smile, " I have 



DOMINUS PASTOR MEUS. 



461 



always accepted the entire gospel without disputing either 
its commandments, its mysteries, or its promises. The 
Lord is faithful.* 

A few days before his death he asked my eldest brother, 
who, with me, was standing by him, to repeat the 23d 
Psalm. As he never spoke anything but Latin with my 
father, he began it in that tongue ; but he asked him to 
give it in Hebrew, reciting it after him with folded hands, 
in a low voice. He thought, too, of all of us. He gave 
me directions as to what to do after his death ; he be- 
queathed this or that article to one or another; but he 
did not dwell on these matters. Having once arranged 
them, he never again referred to the subject. 

The nearer he approached to his end, the more silent 
he became. If we no longer came to hear him speak, 
we could not grow weary of watching the saintly heroism 
which the great Christian knew how to put forth in his 
death. 

. M. Tronchin himself was deeply impressed by the spec- 
tacle. One day, when we were talking together of the 
manner in which my father was bearing the sufferings it 
had pleased God to lay upon him, and when I expressed 
my surprise that, after a life like his, he was called to such 
an end, he replied that it was in the very character of 
his career that he found the explanation of his protracted 
sgony. "How often have I heard even his friends say, 
when I have been dilating admiringly on your father's 
work, 1 Malan serves God with energy, with courage, and 
perseverance, because the service which God requires of 
him is an activity that agrees with his tastes and talents, 

* Notices by J. A. Bost, page 66. 



462 



LIFE OF CAESAR MALAN. 



but pause before you fix your judgment — wait till you 
see him summoned from an active, to a passive, service/ 
God is doing that now," he added, " under our very eyes, at 
this moment ; and in our eyes, too, His servant is found 
faithful." 

A matter which still occupied my father's thoughts was 
his chapel. His wish had been that it should continue 
dedicated, after his death, to the ministry of the gospel. 
At the very beginning of his illness, he asked me to relate 
over again to him certain steps which had been taken 
some years before to transfer it into the hands of his 
brethren of the Evangelical Church. Those to whom I had 
applied in the matter wished it for themselves, but they 
could not come to terms with the society to which the 
site had been sold. Moreover, its position, in consequence 
of new embankments which had thrown it into a hollow, 
made it impossible to think of setting up there any but 
a temporary worship. 

Under these circumstances, my father, in view of his 
end, charged me to have it taken down, lest, if it were left 
standing, it might come to be appropriated to secular pur- 
poses. As I was detained at Yandoeuvres, one of his 
deacons, a man who had given his whole life to the service 
of Malan's church, and who had stood by my father 
through nearly his entire ministry, was ready to undertake 
the mournful task. 

Scarcely, however, had he commenced to do so, when he 
ascertained that the building which, at the beginning, was 
very lightly constructed, was in so dilapidated a condition 
that it would have been dangerous to allow it to remain. 



THE TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE. 463 



It was even necessary to take special care lest its demoli- 
tion should involve some accident.* 

So ended the Chapel of Testimony, in which two genera- 
tions had received spiritual nourishment, and the recalling 
of which evokes, even at this hour, in Geneva, tender and 
sacred memories in many a pious heart. All that now 
remains of it is the title, " Chemin de la Chapelle," given 
to the road which skirts its site. Allied with my father's 
personal work, it was fitting that they should end together.-f- 

But to return to our beloved one. We had never 
ceased to entreat the Lord to diminish his sufferings, and 
to put an end to the anguish of our dear mother, who 
saw him slowly departing without power to utter a 
single farewell. These prayers were now to be heard. 
My father descended, step by step, into the dark valley ; 
but, as the tranquillity of his features showed, his lonely 
pathway was lighted with radiance from on high. A 
peace superior to the sufferings and dissolution of the 
bodily frame — the peace and assurance of a believing soul 
— that assurance which he had spent his life in proclaim- 
ing to his brethren — surrounded him now. Nor did it 
ever leave him, but proved his one support. He could 

* Geneva being still in 1820 a fortified town, the military administration 
could not allow the chapel to be built of stone, on account of its proximity 
to the fortifications. 

f The proceeds of the sale of the materials of the seats, and of the organ, 
amounting, after expenses deducted, to 1900 francs, was placed by me to 
the account of the Girls' School founded by my mother, as we have already 
seen, on the very day of the consecration of the chapel. At the desire of 
Madame Wolff Hanloch, the organ which bad been given by her family in 
1820 was sold in the interest of the same charity. It was bought for the 
vestry of the church in Coppet, in which, as it happened, my father, when 
a student, preached for the first time. 



464 



LIFE OF OJESAB MA LAN. 



not always hear our voices, but his assured and peaceful 
look showed us that he still enjoyed an unclouded mind. 

In his last sleep on the eve of his death (it was a Satur- 
day) he smiled constantly, while he folded his hands. On 
the Sunday morning, the 8th of May, my eldest sister, 
coming into his room with me, greeted him with the 
-words, '* Father, this is the day when the Lord Jesus will 
come to receive you unto Himself." I saw him smile that 
gracious, winning smile, ere he fell asleep to awake no 
more. At 1.30 on that day, while we were all gathered 
round his bed, waiting for his last sigh, his breathing, 
which, since the morning, had been quiet and regular, 
ceased by degrees. He had departed without a struggle. 

As the paleness of death swept solemnly over his fea- 
tures (which, through the whole morning, had been sin- 
gularly bright, and, one might almost say, grown young 
again), his face flushed up with a sudden gleam of delighted 
surprise. The servant, who was standing in front of me 
at the foot of his bed, broke the stillness by exclaim- 
ing, " Oh how glorious — how glorious ! Look, sir, look !" 
I did not catch his expression at that particular moment, 
but I heard one of my sisters reply to the appeal, " Yes, 
our father's spirit was introduced at that instant into the 
presence of celestial glory." 

When his death became known at Geneva, there was a 
general mourning among his friends. 

On Tuesday, at two p.m., a large concourse of sym- 
pathisers came from far and near to pay him their last 
tribute of respect. The Pastor Theremin conducted the 
funeral service at the house. The bereaved family were 
represented by the only one of his sons who was still 



BENEATH THE WAVE. 



465 



there; another having been summoned home at a time 
when it was not anticipated that his end was so near. 
Fifteen ministers — National and Independent, Anglican and 
Lutheran — gathered round the grave. The son of Malan, 
who was present, gave a brief address, and offered a 
prayer, amid the reverent attention of the bystanders. 
A clergyman present invited the people to join him in 
singing the following verses of one of Malan's most popu- 
lar hymns, commencing, " Du Eocher de Jacob," No. 199 
of the " Chants de Sion :"— 

" C'est pour l'eternite' que le Seigneur nous aime, 
Sa grace en notre cceur jamais ne cessera. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! 
Car il est notre espoir, notre bonheur supreme ! 

' ' Notre sepulcre aussi connaitra sa victoire ; 
Sa voix au dernier jour nous ressuscitera ; 

Alleluia! Alleluia! 
Pour nous, Ses rachetes, la mort se change en gloire." * 

The hymn over, the throng silently dispersed. 

Malan rests in the cemetery of Vandceuvres, by the side 
of his beloved mother whom he had laid there himself in 

* The Translator offers the following English version : — 

" Ever doth His love enfold us, 
Ever will His grace uphold us, 

Alleluia ! 
This our hope and happiness, 
This our perfect blessedness, 
Alleluia ! 

" Death, discrowned, can ne'er appal us, 
From the grave He will recall us, 

Alleluia ! 
Death to His Eedeemed is life, 
Glory crowns their toil and strife, 
Alleluia !" 

2 G 



466 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



1848, under a cypress which he loved to look at as he sat 
on a seat in his garden, which commanded a distant view 
of it, and which had consequently become his favourite 
haunt. My mother has made it hers. Thence she sees 
the granite block which marks his grave, and which stands 
out in snowy contrast against the cemetery trees ; while 
above soars Mont Blanc and that amphitheatre of moun- 
tains which he, whose absence she mourns, loved to con- 
template. 

It is her desire that a resting-place may be reserved for 
her beside that tomb on which, under the vivid impress of 
the deathbed scene, she has caused to be engraved, in 
memory of the past life of him who has gone from her side, 
and in prospect of the blessedness into which he has 
entered, the following words : — 

CESAR MA LAN, 
Dr en Th. 
7 Juillet 1787. 
8 May 1864. 

" Bienheureux sont les morts qui dorenavant nieurent an Seigneur! Oui 
pour certain, dit 1' Esprit, ils se reposent de leurs travaux, et leurs ceuvres 
les suivent." — Apoc. xiv. 13. * 

I feel, more especially after writing the last few pages 
which have awakened the most affecting of all my recol- 

* CAESAR MALA N, 
Doctor est Theology. 
7 July 1787. 
8 May 1861. 

" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Even so, saith the Spirit, 
for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." — Rev. 
xiv. 13. 



FAREWELL, BUT NOT FOR EVER. 467 



lections, that, in laying down my pen, I am quitting anew 
the society of one who was to me more than the great and 
strong-souled man, so simple in his faith, his piety, his 
uprightness, as known to all ; — even the friend of all earthly 
friends the truest, and of fathers the most devoted. 

Dr Malan's name will remain blessed in the Church 
of God. He will never be forgotten among those who have 
learned to rank high above all other interests " the progress 
of the spiritual kingdom," which consists pre-eminently in 
individual regeneration, in personal conversion. Assuming 
that his immediate sphere of action was very limited, his 
influence has made itself felt beyond the limits of the 
French Churches. 

Yet no mere expression of my feelings or convictions 
added to the facts I have submitted to my readers, would 
serve to bring him more vividly before them. I should cer- 
tainly never have accomplished the task committed to me, 
— I should have been out of tune with the central thought 
of the life I have laboured to depict, — if these pages tended 
to the glory of man. 

On the other hand, we should fail in ascribing due 
honour to God, were we to refuse to recognise, in the man 
from whom we are now about to separate, that greatest of 
the living works of the Most High, a Christian worthy the 
name, and a true confessor of the gospel ; a man who, after 
having put his hand to the plough, never looked back ; a 
servant heartily faithful to the uttermost, to all that he 
knew of his Master's will. 

And in taking a last look at such a life, we can but re- 
call the words in which the King Himself has declared His 
purpose to reward His devoted ones. " Well done, good 



468 



LIFE OF CAESAR MA LAN. 



and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful in a few 
things : I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

For my own part, as I turn away from his hallowed 
resting-place, I seem to realise more vividly than ever that 
one thing alone holds its ground. Standing firm amid the 
ever accumulating ruins swept on by the torrent of the 
ages, we see the heart constancy of the man who, after hav- 
ing been led to lay hold on the living God in humble faith, 
has been enabled to persevere unto the end, in constant 
service, up to the full measure of his light. 

And I wait in hope for a happy day, when I shall see 
him again whom I have so long reverenced and loved. 



FINIS. 



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